Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art

The Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, known in Italian as the Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Torino or GAM Torino, is a museum of modern and contemporary art located at 31 via Magenta in the Crocetta district of Turin, Italy. Founded between 1891 and 1895, it houses the city's permanent collections of 19th and 20th century art and forms part of the Fondazione Torino Musei alongside the MAO (Museo d'arte orientale), Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja (Museo civico d'arte antica), and the medieval Borgo and Rocca. The gallery holds particular significance as the continuation of Italy's first municipal initiative to promote a public collection of modern art, which began in 1863. Its holdings now exceed 47,000 works spanning paintings, sculptures, art installations, and video art, with its lower levels dedicated to important reviews and an extensive video library.

The origins of Turin's modern art collection date to 1863, when the Museo Civico was founded, making Turin the first city in Italy to promote a public collection of modern art. Initially, this collection was housed together with ancient art in a building near the Mole Antonelliana. From 1895 until 1942, the collection was exhibited in a pavilion on corso Siccardi (now corso Galileo Ferraris), which was destroyed by Anglo-American bombing during World War II. Following the war, a new building designed by architects Carlo Bassi and Goffredo Boschetti was constructed on the same site and inaugurated in 1959. Director Vittorio Viale arranged for the modern art collection to occupy two floors of this new structure. The building was declared unfit for use in the 1980s and underwent a lengthy, complicated restoration before reopening in July 1993. In 2009, the collection was reorganized thematically rather than chronologically, following the logical threads of View, Genre, Childhood, and Specularity. A further reorganization occurred in 2013 to mark the 150th anniversary of the collections, establishing the thematic paths of Infinity, Speed, Ethics, and Nature. In 2016, director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev inaugurated 'Parlare alla GAM,' a participatory program inviting people to present personal projects on Giulio Paolini's outdoor work 'Anni Luce' (commonly called Arena Paolini), with participants including artist Braco Dimitrijević, critic and curator Achille Bonito Oliva, and writer and critic Roberto Brunelli.

The GAM's collections encompass art from the 19th and 20th centuries, comprising over 47,000 paintings, sculptures, installations, and video works. The gallery's holdings reflect a broad chronological and stylistic range, from Neoclassicism and the Macchiaioli through various modernist movements to postwar and contemporary practices. The institution has increasingly emphasized its video art holdings, maintaining a substantial video library in its lower levels. The thematic reorganization of 2009 and 2013 shifted away from traditional chronological display toward conceptual groupings that allow for new interpretive connections across periods and styles. The museum also supports educational programming through multiple didactic laboratories, a conference room, a library, a photographic archive, a thematic bookshop, and a cafeteria.

The gallery's collections include significant works by major Italian and international artists. Among the 19th-century figures represented are Antonio Canova, Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Antonio Fontanesi, Giacomo Grosso, Cesare Saccaggi, and Antonio Mancini. The 20th-century holdings encompass Italian modernists such as Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, Filippo de Pisis, Demetrio Cosola, Mario Tozzi, Giorgio De Chirico, Lucio Fontana, Angelo Savelli, Dadamaino, Felice Casorati, Carlo Levi, Pinot Gallizio, Nino Franchina, and Domenico Valinotti. International artists in the collection include Paul Klee, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Soulages, and Andy Warhol. The breadth of these holdings reflects the gallery's long history of acquisition and its role in documenting the development of modern and contemporary art in Italy within an international context.

The GAM is located at 31 via Magenta in the Crocetta quarter of Turin's first district. The current building, designed by Carlo Bassi and Goffredo Boschetti, was constructed on the site of the earlier pavilion destroyed in 1942 and opened in 1959. This structure was specifically designed to accommodate the modern art collection across two floors, as requested by director Vittorio Viale. Following its closure in the 1980s due to being declared unfit for use, the building underwent extensive restoration before its reopening in July 1993. The lower rooms of the building are dedicated to important exhibitions and house the gallery's significant video art collection and video library.

The Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art is situated at 31 via Magenta in the Crocetta district of Turin. The museum is accessible via the Re Umberto station on Line M1 of the Turin Metro. As part of the Fondazione Torino Musei, it operates alongside the MAO, Palazzo Madama, and the medieval Borgo and Rocca, though the latter two remain municipal property without being incorporated into the Foundation. The gallery provides visitor amenities including group and school reservations, didactic laboratories, a conference room, a library, a photographic archive, a thematic bookshop, and a cafeteria. Its website is http://www.gamtorino.it.