NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART (fourth part)

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER SPACE 1926 - 2000

Room 24 - Continuity of sculpture

“Orpheus” about 1922/28 by Arturo Martini (1889/1947)

“Seated Nude” 1953/54 by Alberto Viani (1906/89)

“Sphere No.2” 1963 by Arnaldo Pomodoro (1926)

“The spheres are first and foremost perfect forms, magical, and I break them to discover (search, find) the internal fermentation, mysterious and living, monstrous and pure” (Arnaldo Pomodoro)

Painting “The Brawl” 1938 by Alberto Ziveri (1908/90)

Room 25 - Modernity and Classicism

Between the two world wars, many European artists returned to the classical figurative tradition after the intoxication of the revolutionary vanguard

In Italy there were two art movements that advocate the return to the values of simplicity, both supported by the fascist regime

One was Novecento Italiano (Italian Twentieth Century) sponsored by the journalist Margherita Sarfatti in the years 1922/29 (Mario Sironi, Francesco Trombadori, Felice Casorati) that seeks to return to order and the other was Realismo Magico (Magic Realism) (Cagnaccio di San Pietro, Felice Casorati, Antonio Donghi) by a 1926 definition of the writer Massimo Bontempelli to indicate the simultaneous presence in the works of everyday gestures and mysterious allusions, real visions and dream imagery

“Girl in the Mirror” 1932 and “Prayer” 1932 by Cagnaccio di S. Pietro (Natale Scarpa) (1897/1946)

In Prayer he had his son as model, and in Waiting, another painting of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, he portrayed his parents as fishers of the Venetian lagoon, where he had spent his childhood. He was a painter outside the scheme of things, hyper-realistic, powerful and vivid
"The white walls of the room, borders of the boxed space, in their bare and dry sobriety welcome as sole insert (and almost unique color detachment) the ancient votive tablet, which the photographic cut of the painting reveals only partially; the diffuse glow determines an atmosphere of soothing suspension, but a more intense light invests the child's face, a light whose source, studiously external to the panel, acquires symbolic quality” (Lucia Mannini – Catalogue of the exhibition Bellezza Divina)

“The spouses of the sailors” 1934 by Massimo Campigli (1895/1971)

“This is one of the most paradigmatic of Campigli's works, both for the reference to the Etruscan iconography and for the color that mimics the earthiness of the fresco, and one must relate the increased size to the adhesion of the painter to the 1933 Manifesto of Mural Painting, which will lead soon to the numerous official commissions of murals” (Fabiola di Fabio)

“Thunderstorm” 1933 by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72)

“Boy on a Horse” 1936 by Carlo Carrà (1881/1966)

"The painting is also known as The Meeting and it was executed in the period in which Carrà was tackling monumental painting. The way in which the color is applied is immediate and almost gestural. The color palette is kept on the primary tones of white, blue and earth, giving a sort of stillness to the composition, where the boy on the horse and the woman establish a silent conversation between themselves" (Website GNAM - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Portraits of Women” about 1934 and “Hospital” 1927 by Felice Casorati (1883/1963)

“I wish I could proclaim the sweetness of fixing on canvas ecstatic souls laying still, motionless and mute things, long looks, deep and clear thoughts, a life of joy and not of vertigo, a life of pain and not of anguish” (Felice Casorati)

“The Bride” 1934 by Emanuele Cavalli (1904/81)

Work characterized by the sharp and sad black of the eyes of the bride, contrasting with the immaculate white of the dress

The poverty of the setting, the simplicity of the clothes of the three women who wait on her and the soft colors used by Cavalli explicitly give a sense that this cannot be a happy marriage just in the same way as many marriages narrated by ancient myths

“The Hunter” 1929 by Antonio Donghi (1897/1963)

“He soon focused his congenial kind of painting in the Magical Realism in a naive form of primitivism, with something that recalls the series of watercolor paintings and prints of the nineteenth century Roman Costumes” (Stefania Frezzotti)

“Realistic representation (and therefore domestic, familial) but at the same time suspended, ecstatic, as hallucinatory: in the enchanted stillness, and yet humble, nothing can happen anymore” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“In a Tram” 1923 by Virgilio Guidi (1891/1984)

“The Stars (or the Sisters)” about 1932, “The Drinker (or Thirst or the Man who Drinks)” 1934/35 and “Woman at the Window” 1930 by Arturo Martini (1889/1947)

The drinker was inspired by the casts of Pompeii and the representations of thirsty by Arnolfo di Cambio for the fountain of Perugia

“Solitude” about 1926, “The Meeting” 1929 and “The Builder” 1936 by Mario Sironi (1885/1961)

The Builder (Il Costruttore) is the preparatory cartoon for the mosaic that was to decorate the staircase of the Art Palace of Milan

“Still Life” (Still Life with Fruit Basket) 1923 and “Neoclassical Nude” about 1925 by Francesco Trombadori (1886/1961)

“Trombadori, who at the beginning of his career had frequented Bragaglia, studied the composition of this painting using photography. Far from simple naturalism, this is a reinterpretation of museum painting tradition with verbatim quotes from Caravaggio to Vermeer” (Stefania Frezzotti)

 “The clear reminiscence of Ingres's Bathers seems to account for the epithet of Neoclassical, and the relationship with the 'classic' and Roman Picasso of the same years” (Stefania Frezzotti)

Room 26 - The expressionist trend

“From the late twenties the expressionist trend contrasts with the classical one, to become, during the Second World War, the language of dissent. Channels of international dialogue remain open through Filippo De Pisis who had moved to Paris and Antonietta Raphaël, a member of the Slavic Jews diaspora which in the French capital was represented by Chagall and Soutine. Raphaël is a part, with Scipione, Mario Mafai and Marino Mazzacurati, of the so-called Roman School (or Via Cavour School), characterized by a poetic at the same time realistic and visionary. Even the mythical and popular paintings of Fausto Pirandello are part of this climate” (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Interior with young black man” 1937 and “Still Life with Sculpture” 1927 by Filippo De Pisis (1896/1956)

He was best known for his evocative still lifes, metaphysical and heterogeneous

“Crucifixion” 1940/41 by Renato Guttuso (1911/87)

“The theme of the Crucifixion was, at that moment in history, a symbolic example of the drama that humankind was living; Guttuso creates a scene ancient and modern at the same time in which, not without arousing heated debate in the religious and regime press, the characters are naked and their bodies are treated as discordant color fields, just like the elements of the landscape and the horses. The new cubist and expressionist research that Guttuso had undertaken in this period led him to achieve in this work, considered a milestone in Italian art of the twentieth century, the highest pathos” (Mariastella Margozzi)
"For Guttuso it was imperative that the 'transcendent would be an integral part of life and thoughts of humanity' in the urgency to take a stand towards the choral tragedy in the wake of works such as Picasso's Guernica or the White Crucifixion by Chagall" (Anna Mazzanti - Catalogue of the exhibit Bellezza Divina)
“Naked on the Couch (Reclining Nude)” 1933, “A Doll's Head (Still Life with Mask)” 1938 and “Demolition of the Borghi Neighborhood in Rome” 1939 by Mario Mafai (1902/65)

Demolition of the Borghi is part of a series on the same subject representing the destruction of several central areas of Rome by the fascist regime and the relocation of residents in public housing in the suburbs. It was a theme very dear to Mafai who had seen his own home destroyed at the time

“Golden Rain” 1933 and “Drought” 1937 by Fausto Pirandello (1899/1975)

Colored concrete sculpture “The Three Sisters” about 1936 and painting “Portrait of a Young Girl” 1928 by Antonietta Raphaël Mafai (1895/1975) companion of Mario Mafai, both painter and sculptor, with a style arabesque and exotic, somewhat archaic but still close to everyday life themes

“Art movement defined by Roberto Longhi Scuola di Via Cavour (School of Via Cavour). At the beginning it was the small group of painters who exhibited in 1928 at the Galleria Doria: Scipione (Gino Bonichi) and Mario Mafai who were the promoters and Antoinette Raphaël Mafai, Gisberto Ceracchini and Giuseppe Capogrossi. To the archaic and monumental formalism of the official art of the time it opposed the expressionistic reading of reality” (Garzantina Arte)

“Piazza Navona” 1930 “Men who turn” 1930 by Scipione (Gino Bonichi) (1904/33)

“Scipio engaged his knowledge of ancient painting references with contemporary expressionist paintings by agreeing to outcomes that transform the image into hallucinatory figures and fantasy landscapes, where fantasy and reality are living in a single dream. The emotional power of color and the energy of light surround each element of the representation” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

Sculpture “Rooster” 1948 by Lucio Fontana (1899/1968)

Polychrome glazed terracotta sculpture “Night Bombardment” about 1954 by Leoncillo Leonardi (1915/68)

“It depicts a mother who protects her child, between the lightning and the thunder of explosions: the colored planes expand in space, animating matter with a spirit that is a prelude to his informal production of the subsequent years. For the analogy of the theme with Picasso's famous work, Night Bombardment is also known as Guernichetta (Small Guernica)” (Maura Picciau)

Room 27 - The resumption of the international debate

Soon after World War II the Venice Biennale (or Venice Biennial the major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice) contributed to include Italy again in international art circles

All the artists whose works are exhibited in this room were present at the Bienniale and some have won awards

“Boy with Ball” 1950 by Karen Appel (1921)

“It documents a period of the artist in which are evident a marked figurative image and an anthropomorphic connotation of drama and mockery. The work takes the form of the last consequence of Nordic Expressionism which, through the experience of Van Gogh, Munch and Ensor, reached through Appel, an unconventional force that relies on color impact and violence of the scratches etched for its total creative freedom” (Giulia Pedace)

“Compendium of Universal History” 1953 by Max Ernst (1891/1976)

“The work was executed by Max Ernst in 1953, when he returned to Paris after the U.S. period. In his works from those years, the artist adhered to a conventional technique in his paintings accentuating the lyric-narrative component. In such works anamorphic figures are represented, closely linked to his surrealist history, in which the cubist influence is also evident” (Maria Giuseppina di Monte)

“Summertime” 1957 by the French Jean Fautrier (1898/1964)

This work was donated by the artist at the request of the Superintendent Palma Bucarelli who had presented the solo exhibition of the artist in 1960 at the Venice Biennale

“Amalassunta n. 2” 1950 by Osvaldo Licini (1854/1958)

“Three dream figures half hand and half foot produce a fantastic image that sums up the union between heaven and earth, between what is 'high' and what is 'low', between the purity of feeling (represented by the heart) and impure realities that the eye perceives” (Mariastella Margozzi)

“Precise destination” 1950 by Alberto Magnelli (1888/1971)

“The image appears geometric as it is made of linear simple features, straight or curved. But it is not repeated by a geometric pattern, does not involve a geometric symbolism of the space, it is only a figure. Figure and background form zones of color, filled up to the edges, not a drop overflowing, because Magnelli has a sense of proportion and fear the scarcity as the excessive” (Giulio Carlo Argan)

“Watery Paths or Undulating Path” 1947 by the American Jackson Pollock (1912/56)

He was one of the leading exponents of Abstract Expressionism or Action Painting

“My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the upstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting. This is akin to the methods of the Indian sand painters of the West” (Jackson Pollock)

“Second Voyage to Italy or The Fall of Hyperion” 1964 by the American Cy Twombly (1928)

Concrete on canvas "Tabula Rasa" 1958 by the Spanish Antoni Tàpies (1923)

"The painting refers to a negative image, like a footprint left by a door torn. The multiple and dramatic semantic implications of the wall were described by Tàpies himself in an interview in 1969 where he punned with his own name, one of the Catalan words used to describe the term 'wall': 'How many suggestions can come from the image of a wall in all its derivations'​​" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

Glossy bronze sculpture “Chimeric Cup” 1947/50 by the French Hans (Jean) Arp (1886/1966)

“Gesture” 1957 by the Spanish Eduardo Chillida (1924/2002)

"In this work, masses are transformed into lines of force. Palma Bucarelli interpreted this sculpture in a political key as 'a fit of anger, a fit of protest'" (From the sign next to the work exposed at the GNAM)

Structure in iron and aluminum hanging from the ceiling “Mobile” about 1958 by the American Alexander Calder (1898/1976), a project for the set design of a ballet

Two bronze sculptures: “Figure (Femme de Venise VI)” about 1956 (cast 1957) e “Grande Donna (Standing Woman III)” about 1960 (cast 1963) by Alberto Giacometti (1901/66)

“Reclining figure (External Form)” 1953/54 by Henry Moore (1898/1986)

Moore's forms, often inspired by the human body expressed in basic and primitive forms, tend to primordial nature and want to be symbols of hope

“I want to be quite free of having to find a 'reason' for doing the Reclining Figures, and freer still of having to find a 'meaning' for them. The vital thing for an artist is to have a subject that allows to try out all kinds of formal ideas – things that he doesn’t yet know about for certain but wants to experiment with, as Cézanne did in his 'Bathers' series. In my case the reclining figure provides chances of that sort. The subject-matter is given. It's settled for you, and you know it and like it, so that within it, within the subject that you've done a dozen times before, you are free to invent a completely new form-idea” (Henry Moore)

Room 28 - Light and movement

In the late fifties and early sixties in Italy and Europe a frenzy for artistic visual effects, for motion and for space developed as well as studies of the perception of the viewer

Fifty years later, in the Internet era, these experiments may seem archaic, but nevertheless testify to the vitality and interest in searching for new expressions of creativity definitely remarkable in the light of their historical context

“Sin-Gestalt n. 14” 1963 by Giovanni Pizzo (1934)

“Struttura operativa (Operative Structure) n. 13” 1965 di Lucia di Luciano (1933)

Acrylic on canvas “Continuità (Continuity) n. 13” 1963 by Francesco Guerrieri (1931)

“Superficie a testura vibratile 2 (Programmed work 3161)” 1965 by Getulio Alviani (1939)

“Serial Modular Structure 8” 1968 by Vincenzo Arena (1932)

“Ludoscopio. Pit-Expansion” 1977 by Paolo Scirpa (1934)

“Cineriflessione sferica variabile P 66-67” 1966/67 by Edoardo Landi

“Structure 752” 1957/64 and “Structure 726” 1963 by Enzo Mari (1932)

“Field 1463 N” 2010 by Shay Frisch Peri (1963)

“Magnetic Surface n. 7/64” 1960/64 by Davide Boriani

“Labyrinthe diagonal” 1965 by Martha Boto

“Luminoso mobile 135 B/66” 1968 by Nino Calos

“Strutturazione pulsante” 1959 e “Strutturazione ritmica pulsante, strutturazione ritmica quadrato pulsante, strutturazione ritmica cerchio in espansione” 1964 by Gianni Colombo

“Continuo mobile (Continuel lumniere-mobile)” 1960/63 by Julio Le Parc (1928)

“Generator n. 10” 1965 by the Gruppo MID (Movimento Immagine Dimensione)

“Lux n. 9” 1959 by Nicolas Schöffer

“Sferisterio” 1960, “Variable Bright Scheme n. 2” 1962-1965 e “Variable Illuminated Spaces” 1963 by Grazia Varisco (1937)

“Linear Interference 18” 1966/70 by Ennio Chiggio (1938)

“Visual Dynamic” 1967 by Toni Costa (1935)

“Politipo 4” 1972 by Alberto Biasi (1937)

“Eye of Light” 1969, “Absence-Presence” 1977 e “Presence-Absence” 1977/78 by Paola Levi Montalcini (1909/2000)

“Dark Spiral” 1970 by Günter Uecker (1930)

“The Gorgo (no sea is too deep)” 1998 by the Studio Azzurro

Bronze portrait “Pupa Raimondi de Conciliis” 1963 by the Bulgarian Assen Peikov (1908/73)

“Furniture in the Valley” 1968 by Mario Ceroli (1938)

“Closet with Elements and Figure Reflected in the Mirror” 1963 by Tano Festa (1938/88)

“Large detail of Italian landscape in black and white” 1963 by Mario Schifano (1934/98)

Room 29 - About surface, material and concept

“This thematic room, centered on the surface theme, which has had great importance in Italian art from the late fifties, is divided into three sections

The first section is devoted to painting the sign, which transforms the surface of the painting in a force field or in a text path with a new writing of words and images

The second section deals with the questioning of two-dimensionality of the surface which is perforated, averted and introverted

The third section deals with some processing on the original surface by exponents of Arte Povera (Poor Art), the movement so named by Germano Celant with reference to the use of raw materials and the direct intervention of the artist in real life

The visitor should also refer to works by Burri, Fontana and Manzoni, who has already seen in Room 02, dedicated to the artists who made scandal” (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Long Integration” about 1958 by the Sicilian Carla Accardi (1924/2014), the only woman in the Group Form One formed in Rome in 1947

The white markings are reminiscent of the Arab decoration still visible in Sicily

“Surface 290” 1958, “Surface 76 bis” 1954/58, “Surface 512” 1959 and “Surface 323” 1959 by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900/72)

“He was in Paris several times (1927, 1933), where his name was linked by critics to the Roman School and tonal painting, but despite the contact with the environment of Scipio and Mafai, his style of painting was different for his compositional rigor and his interest for the cubist decomposition (...). Capogrossi in 1951 participated in the founding of the Roman group Origine, and in 1952 he joined the Gruppo Spaziale in Milan. Having abandoned any reference to the objective world, he conceived a space consciously structured by a sign of almost archetypal simplicity, but always recognizable, and repeated in endless variations and ever new values” (Enciclopedia Treccani) 

“Object n. 22” 1965 and “Object n. 23” 1965 by Agostino Bonalumi (1935/2013)

"After the partnership with Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani, Bonalumi directed its research towards 'object-painting', by inserting between the canvas and the frame of the picture elements that create the three-dimensionality. In Object n. 22 the relief is produced by elements of foam and wood" (From the sign next to the work exposed at the GNAM)

Two paintings "Untitled" 1987, three paintings "Sign and Design" 1979, embroidery on fabric "Today, the ninth day of the fifth month in 1000 nine hundred eighty nine" 1989, embroidery on fabric "Six hundred and twenty letters of a hundred colors the colors of the world in the month of March of the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine" 1989, embroidery on fabric "Map" 1990 and “For an alienated man” 1968 by Alighiero Boetti (1940/1994)

"Exponent of the genre defined Arte Povera by the critic Germano Celant (1967), a tireless experimenter, Boetti has analyzed the themes of alternation, contrast, double and identity (significantly he divided his name into Alighiero & Boetti. He interrupted his studies in economics and Business and dedicated himself to developing self-taught art works inspired by the Neo-Dadaist style. He produced works in various materials and forms, which express the idea of ​​the contrast with irony (weight and lightness, transparency and opacity, eternity and transience) or accumulation. His extended stays and travels around the world have made his work deeper and more complex" (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“White surface” about 1964 and “White surface n. 3” about 1967 by Enrico Castellani (1930)

“On black” by Toti Scialoja (1914/98)

“Burnt shadow” 1956 and “Colorado” 1967 by Afro (Afro Basaldella) (1912/76)

“Minus One (Meno uno)” 1959 and “Abstract Composition (Each one weaves its indulgences)” 1960 by the Roman Piero Dorazio (1927)

“Poetry Reading Tour” 1961 and “The great language” 1963 by Gastone Novelli (1925/68)

"Painted after the trip to Greece in 1962, The Great Language is a kind of poetic diary, full of symbols and quotes. Compared to Paul Klee, the artist who inspired him primarily, according to his own words, the big difference is the ability to reach monumental proportions” (From the sign next to the work exposed at the GNAM)

“Report on Fear” 1962 by the Roman Achille Perilli (1927)

“Composition (No title)” 1962 by the Sicilian Antonio Sanfilippo (1923/80)

“S. Sebastian white” about 1962 by Leoncillo Leonardi (1915/68)

"The transition from Neocubism to Informal, common with many Italian artists, for Leoncillo is an opportunity to bring to the extreme his experiments on the technique of clay. Its subject is bubbling, overflows, as if to express an inner torment" (From the sign next to the work exposed at the GNAM)

“Reflecting Zones” 1963 by Paolo Scheggi (1940/71)

“Remembering New York” 1963 and “Composition (Lunar Surface)” 1965 by Giulio Turcato (1912/95)

Giulio Turcato was an abstract painter whose art is a continuous and interesting exploration of shapes and colors. Here he was surely inspired by the color of the night in New York

“Ferrocemento n. 20” 1963 and “Reinforced Concrete” 1963 by Giuseppe Uncini (1929/2008)

“Bandes” 1969 by the French Daniel Buren (1938)

“Louis Philippe to Miocene” 1967 by Gianfranco Baruchello (1924)

Enamel on canvas “Z-44” 1960 and “No Title” 1966 by Jannis Kounellis (1936)

“Nth” 1975/88 by Giulio Paolini (1940)

Very large work “Strips of gold on acacia thorns” 2002 by Giuseppe Penone (1947) one of the leading exponents of the current Arte Povera (Poor Art)

“The Visitors” 1968 by Michelangelo Pistoletto (1933)

He has become famous for his reflecting paintings that, in this case, extend the virtual space of the work in the real space

“The theme of the relationship between art and life remains a constant theme in Pistoletto's research. He was one of the main animators of Arte Povera movement, and, in recent years, he became more and more convinced of the role of art as a means of gathering and social transformation, and he established the foundation Cittadellarte in Biella (1998), housed in a complex of industrial archeology, conceived as a large workshop aimed to put art in connection with the various sectors of society” (Martina De Luca)

“Uniform Matte Black Metal” 1961, “Metal matte black uniform (joint surface paraspheric extroverted)” 1961 and two “Projects for paraspheric introverted metal” 1962 by Francesco Lo Savio (1935/63)

“Senza Titolo (Untitled)” 1967 by Gilberto Zorio (1944). A metal pipe placed vertically on inner tubes for bicycle

"The pipe that weighs on the inner tubes without bursting them is a burden amorphous and deaf. The inner tubes are the alive and organic energy" (Gilberto Zorio)

“Hole” 1963/66 by Luciano Fabro (1936/2007)

“The Arte Povera (Poor Art) is one of the few movements that has a clear ideological profile, accurate place and date of birth: Genoa, September 1967 with the exhibition 'Arte Povera-Im Space'. (...) In contrast to the shimmering pop aesthetics the group of the 'magnificent 13' (Anselmo, Boetti, Calzolari, Fabro, Kounellis, Mario and Marisa Merz, Paolini, Pascali, Penone, Pistoletto, Prini and Zorio) intentionally departs from traditional artistic practices rejecting the idea of the work of art as a separate body, closed and static. The work is defined from the space of real life and turns into an event that happens under the eyes of the beholder” (Martina De Luca)

Room 30 - Icons and pop symbols

In Rome Pop Art was followed by artists of the so called School of Piazza del Popolo: Franco Angeli, Mario Schifano, Tano Festa, Mario Ceroli

They had an ironic attitude and were politically active. Even Andy Warhol was influenced by political symbols that were often cited in the works of Italian pop artists and created the large hammer and sickle after a trip to Italy

“Artificial Tree” 1965 by Gino Marotta (1935/2012)

Enamel on canvas “Landscape anemic version with enamel and soul” 1965 by Mario Schifano (1934/98)

"This work is part of the period of the so-called 'anemic landscapes' fragments of nature, objects, lines; a far cry  from the real landscape or 'romantic', anemic for their setting almost skeletal and the essentiality of colors. The lean technique is that of the informal period, the two canvases stacked vertically (...), do not correspond to a figurative break" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

Mirror, veil, calicot on canvas and enamel “Half Dollar (Mezzo dollaro)” 1965 and enamel and veil calicot on canvas “Birth of Rome” 1964 by Franco Angeli (1935/88) 

Enamel, paper and glue on wood panel “The city of Genoa” 1962 by Tano Festa (1938/88)

Acrylic and sand on canvas “Green Bedcover (Copriletto verde)” 1969 and “Brick Wall” 1968 by Domenico Gnoli (1933/70)

“Mythology 3” 1962 by Mimmo Rotella (1918/2006)

Oil and acrylic on wood “Ziqqurat 2” 1967 by the English Joe Tilson (1928)

“Hammer and Sicle (Falce e martello)” 1977 by Andy Warhol (1928/87)

"Exponent of American Pop Art Warhol wanted to demystify the icons of the time, the painting, the artwork and the artist's idea of a demiurge, so dear to the artists of Action Painting. He lived in harmony with his environment: he worked in the cinema industry, wrote novels and had a show on television, collected and bought anything but among all of his interests painting was the most important to him. This passion resurfaced in him in the seventies stimulated by a series of trips to Italy where he was struck by posters in the streets. Looking at those referring to the symbol of the Communist Party he realized Hammer and Sickle from the model of a photograph of tools bought and put in pose: the hammer and the sickle are reproduced through the screen printing process and brushed with red paint, a clear reference to the ideology that these tools represent" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Great cinema in solid light yellow” 1968 by Fabio Mauri (1926/2009)

Composition in wood “Last Supper” 1965 by Mario Ceroli (1938)

“The origins are English, as the term pop art coined by the critic Lawrence Alloway, but America is the country that is commonly thought of as far as pop art is concerned. The infamous Campbell soup cans, portraits of movie stars (Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor) by Warhol identify a current that, in fact, involved many artists from many different nations, proponents of an aesthetic 'standardized, transient, easy, clever, sexy, charming, commercial'“ (Martina De Luca)

Room 31 - With or without objects

Room dedicated to Nouveau Realisme, term coined by the French critic Pierre Restanyin 1960, and to Conceptual Art

Nouveau Realism is an artistic movement that exaggerates and uses creatively and ironically typical objects of everyday life in Western civilization

Conceptual Art expresses itself instead with the dematerialization of objects or including in works even huge fragments of our environment as in the “environmental works” of Christo

“International Klein Blue 199” 1958 by the French Yves Klein (1928/62)

“Although he only lived 34 years, Klein has marked a milestone in the development of European art. A profound knowledge of Oriental doctrines accumulated in adolescence by the practice of martial arts, pushed him towards the adoption of an initiating behavior and his works are a reflection on art itself and on the artist. (...) This color is for Klein the only instrument capable of exceeding the representation of inherent reality to reconnect to the spiritual condition, a characteristic of creative thought” (Martina De Luca)

“There are no objective limits to artistic expression, neither in content nor in form. The only authority I have always recognized is my inner voice” (Yves Klein)

“The rêve passe” 1963 by the French Arman (Armand Fernmandez) (1928/2005)

“Historical” 1972 by the Sicilian Emilio Isgrò (1937)

"The practice of the cancellation is presented as a creative activity and as pure imagination, where text, subject to a radical semantic change, acquires new life and freedom. In Historical words were almost eliminated in their entirety and only a few words were selected according to a critical and visual operation that makes them worthy of evidence in rhythmic succession of solids and voids due to deletions that surround them. The modified page acquires value of image, opening up to new possibilities" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“The world of communications” 1962/72 by the Czech Jiri Kolar (1914/2002)

“Senza Titolo” 1974 by Jannis Kounellis (1936)

“Ponte Sant'Angelo Wrapped” 1969 by the Bulgarian Christo (Christo Javacheff) (1935)

With his wife Jean-Claude, who was born curiously on the same day and died in 2009, became famous for having packed islands in Florida, valleys in Colorado, trails in Missouri, the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Parliament (Reichstag) in Berlin, the Aurelian Walls in Rome and for having installed 7,500 colored doors in Central Park in New York

“Meditation d'apres de La Tour” 1970 by Luigi Ontani (1943)

“Tableau Piége” 1961 by the Romanian Daniel Spoerri (1930)

"Tableau-piège is part of the very first production of 'Trap Paintings' a practice undertaken by the artist in 1961. In this work there are some recognizable objects, cans, boxes of Swedish cookies, a bottle opener and a parcel, which random position Spoerri traps for good on the table. The objects remain anchored forever in that place which is the abstract space of the work of art, theater of the traces left by things" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“With Title” 1984 and “Untitled” 1985 by Gino De Dominicis (1947/98)

"In this work (With Title) resurface the myths of Gilgamesh (King of the Mesopotamian city of Uruk) and Urvasi (goddess of beauty Hindu Vedas), (...) equivalent, in their quest for immortality, to the figure of the artist. The temporal distance between the two myths from different cultures, Sumerian and Indian, is canceled with art that lives in an eternal present, and that takes the shape of a little girl's with the face of an old woman with a cross in her hand,, a recurring symbol applicant in the work of the artist" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

Photographic composition “J’ai jeté 4 dessins dans le torrent Chisone (Turin) destination mer. Act raisonnable, ennuyeux, autocritique” 1969 by Gina Pane (1939/1990)

Installation “Inox Wire” 1983 by Maurizio Mochetti (1940)

Room 32 - The return to painting and sculpture

In this room there are works by artists belonging to the so-called Trans-avant-garde, a term coined by the critic Achille Bonito Oliva in 1979. With these artists there is a return to traditional artistic methods after the super trasgressive experiments of the sixties and seventies

“Rome” 1986 by Enzo Cucchi (1949)

“Untitled” 1981 by Francesco Clemente (1952)

“Boy and Dog” 1983 by Sandro Chia (1946)

"Here the artist recovers the monumentality of the human figure as with this young man whose natural artistic inclination to see 'more' and 'better' is underlined by the double representation of the eyes. The intensification of intuition and perception is symbolized by the presence of the dog that guides us in the dense forest that surrounds the figure: the youth faces with talent and courage this hostile environment, symbolizing the artistic universe and therefore the real world" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Lair” 1993 by Mimmo Paladino (1948)

“Magic Philosophy of Works of Art” 1978 by Nicola de Maria (1954)

Room 33 - The new authenticity

The assembly manual intervention and the craft work of the artist were considered to be important again in the seventies for the originality and uniqueness of the work

“Horizontal Pale” 1975 by Lorenzo Guerrini (1914/2002)

“Dawn, day, dusk and night” 1975/76 by Eliseo Mattiacci (1940)

"Eager to witness through his works the perpetuation of the immutable cycles of nature that mark the passing of days and seasons, captured by the charm and magnetism that the planets exert on each living form, Mattiacci draws from cosmology an endless source of inspiration. The work is composed of four slabs of different materials - steel, glass, copper, iron - representing, through various shades of color and different modes of reflection of light, the four times of the day" (GNAM Website - www.gnam.beniculturali.it)

“Untitled” 1974 by Ettore Spalletti (1940)

Oil on cardboard "Geomantia" 1976 by Claudio Parmiggiani (1943)

"The work is a representation of the different phases of the moon, only obtained through the overlapping of a finger on a white circle. Back in Geomantia, as in other works of this period, is an anthropological reading of the myth and traditions, in search of the irrational feeling that it is often the motive of the beliefs of men. The language of Parmiggiani tends to consolidate an underground relationship with societies and their history, constantly eroding the rational components, so as to expose the ritual and symbolic devices that act in the unconscious" (GNAM Website - www.gnam. beniculturali.it)

“Tables of Sampling” 1976 by Nedda Guidi (1927)

“Untitled” 1997/98 by Marco Tirelli (1956)

“Rose wrapped” 2003 by Giacinto Cerone (1957/2004)

Room 39 - Sculpture and surface

Six sculptures of four artists exploring the theme of two-dimensional surface

“Wood burning” 1958/81 and “Wall of Sound” 1956/71 by Pietro Consagra (1920/2005)

“Night” 1986 by Nunzio (Nunzio Stefano) (1954)

“Great Crowd n. 1” 1964 by Giò Pomodoro (1930/2002) brother of Arnaldo

“He was oriented to the study of the virtues of plastic surfaces, as evidenced by the series of reliefs referred to as Opposing Flowability of 1958 and Surfaces in Tension of 1959. From these originated The Crowds, flowing and dynamic surfaces in dialogue with space, air and light” (Maura Picciau)

“In May” 1967 and “Phantazo” 1972 by Piero Dorazio (1927/2005)

“The Tables of the Law or the Glass Bible” 1994 by Emilio Isgrò (1937)

“Industrial Divinity” 1966 by Ettore Colla (1896/1968)