Description
The Gallery of Modern Art of Genoa, the GAM, is the museum of 19th- and 20th-century Italian art tucked away in the Parks of Nervi, in the historic Villa Saluzzo Serra: paintings and sculptures inside a noble residence, with an English-style park all around.
The collections number over 2,700 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, from the early 19th century to the present day, spread over the ground floor and the two upper floors. Some come from the Wolfson collection of the nearby Wolfsoniana, and themed exhibitions are also staged in the rooms.
Among the works to look out for are the Ligurian landscapes by 19th-century Genoese painters such as Ernesto Rayper, Tammar Luxoro and Rubaldo Merello, and The Cherry Girl by Cesare Viazzi, a small country scene.
The 20th century is a short list of big names: Renato Guttuso's Peasants at Work, Filippo de Pisis's The Archaeologist, Arturo Martini's The Convalescent, Aligi Sassu's The Tuna Slaughter and Francesco Messina's Boxer Resting on the Ropes.
The gallery's first core was a prince's gift: Prince Oddone of Savoy collected paintings and sculptures that passed to the city in 1866. Bequests and purchases by the city council then made it grow.
The villa has an equally noble history. It belonged to the Marquises Saluzzo, then to the Morando family and from 1815 to the Serra: it was Gerolamo Serra who enlarged it and turned the surrounding olive groves and citrus orchards into one of the most admired gardens in Nervi.
Its guests included King Frederick William of Prussia, Queen Maria Christina of Spain and the French historian Jules Michelet. In 1926 the shipowner Carlo Barabino sold it to the city, and two years later, in 1928, the gallery opened here.
The park is part of the visit: an English-style garden with a vast lawn and streams flowing beneath cypresses, pines, holm oaks, laurels and carob trees, with a cork oak and camellias.
The collections number over 2,700 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, from the early 19th century to the present day, spread over the ground floor and the two upper floors. Some come from the Wolfson collection of the nearby Wolfsoniana, and themed exhibitions are also staged in the rooms.
Among the works to look out for are the Ligurian landscapes by 19th-century Genoese painters such as Ernesto Rayper, Tammar Luxoro and Rubaldo Merello, and The Cherry Girl by Cesare Viazzi, a small country scene.
The 20th century is a short list of big names: Renato Guttuso's Peasants at Work, Filippo de Pisis's The Archaeologist, Arturo Martini's The Convalescent, Aligi Sassu's The Tuna Slaughter and Francesco Messina's Boxer Resting on the Ropes.
The gallery's first core was a prince's gift: Prince Oddone of Savoy collected paintings and sculptures that passed to the city in 1866. Bequests and purchases by the city council then made it grow.
The villa has an equally noble history. It belonged to the Marquises Saluzzo, then to the Morando family and from 1815 to the Serra: it was Gerolamo Serra who enlarged it and turned the surrounding olive groves and citrus orchards into one of the most admired gardens in Nervi.
Its guests included King Frederick William of Prussia, Queen Maria Christina of Spain and the French historian Jules Michelet. In 1926 the shipowner Carlo Barabino sold it to the city, and two years later, in 1928, the gallery opened here.
The park is part of the visit: an English-style garden with a vast lawn and streams flowing beneath cypresses, pines, holm oaks, laurels and carob trees, with a cork oak and camellias.