The activity of the Contemporary and Modern Art Gallery started in 1956 with the successful series of San Marino Biennial Exhibitions.  

Mario Penelope was one of the major authors and promoters of the first edition entitled “Premio d’Arte Figurativa del Titano” (San Marino prize for figurative arts). Thanks to him, some of the most renowned contemporary artists were involved in this initiative, like Renato Guttuso, who was a member of the judging committee. 

The success of this first exhibition, which saw the participation of more than 515 artists and about 100,000 visitors, encouraged the organizers to repeat this initiative , also with the objective to create in San Marino a contemporary art collection with the “purchase prize” formula.
 

The “Premio Repubblica di San Marino – Biennale per la Pittura” (San Marino Prize – Painting Biennial) was inaugurated three years later, followed by the “Terza Biennale di Pittura” (Third Painting Biennial) in 1961, both planned and directed by Gerardo Filiberto Dasi. The Fourth Biennial organised in 1963 and entitled “Oltre l’Informale” (Beyond Informality) bore the hallmark of Giulio Carlo Argan who, as Chairman of the judging committee, proposed to limit participation to the most renowned artists, painters and sculptors working beyond informality. 146 artists, among whom Christo, Dorazio, Kounellis, Rotella, Schifano and Turcato, participated in this Biennial.

The direction of the “Quinta Biennale Internazionale d’Arte Contemporanea” (Fifth International Biennial of Contemporary Art) was entrusted to Efrem Tavoni who, with the collaboration of Marco Valsecchi, proposed a meeting among European young artists. The direction of the Sixth Biennial (1967), the last one, was entrusted again to Giulio Carlo Argan, who proposed the theme “Nuove Tecniche d’Immagine” (New Image Techniques), with the purpose of giving voice to the most innovative proposals in the cultural field and creating a free, experimental exhibition, open to the most vital expressions of the avant-garde research.