黑料不打烊

With the intention to enhance the visibility of its collection, in the past two years the Turin GAM has alternated a series of thematic exhibitions showcasing its most valuable works. Along this line is the upcoming exhibition Strangers, requested by Riccardo Passoni and hosted in the spaces of the Exhibition Area on the first floor of the museum. The show will offer visitors the chance to discover an important portion of the museum鈥檚 rich collections, while investigating the history of its acquisition policy, in particular for what concerns 鈥渇oreign鈥� art. It is thanks to this policy that throughout the years the GAM has become one of the major museums of contemporary art in Italy and among the most renowned in Europe.  

In the first two decades of the 20th century, the museum was deeply rooted in its local reality. It was not until after WWII that it began to take on a more international vision, as a consequence of an intense acquisition campaign beyond national borders. The 60 works featured in this exhibition date back to this particular period which brought about a real rejuvenation of the museum collections. Between 1951 and 1961, Torino hosted 7 exhibitions titled Pittori d鈥橭ggi. Francia Italia (France Italy: Today Painters) ultimately incorporating into the GAM collection many of the important artworks displayed. Also, in the post war years, the museum restored the practice of acquiring works from the Venice Biennales, as well as from important galleries and private collectors that were part of the vibrantly evolving cultural scene of the time.  

The first purchase from the Biennale dates back to 1954 and was a daring one: titled Sculpture de Silence, Corneille by Hans Arp from 1942, the piece will be displayed in the first room of the exhibit together with 5 screen prints by the same artist, dated 1959.  

The exhibition unfolds displaying some of the most significant expressions of international art, which were purchased between the late 1950s and 1970s, representing different artistic movements. From the consistent grouping of Art Informel (with works by Andr茅 Masson, Wols, Roger Bissiere, Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages among others), the optical-geometrical exercises by Beverly Pepper to the core of American Pop Art, which reached the museum on account of a series of valuable acquisitions from the 1960s (the same that enhanced the value of the collections with the only canvas by Pablo Picasso): on display are Andy Warhol鈥檚 masterpiece Orange Car Crash, 1963 and eleven silkscreens by American artists Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Tom Wesselmann, and English artists Allen Jones and Peter Phillips, all of which were originally part of a single lot purchased from the Galleria Sperone in 1967. With the intense exhibition activity of the early 1970s the museum hosted several solo shows by famous national and international artists, and very often the exhibitions resulted in the acquisition of one or more of the displayed works. From this particular period are the works by Anna Eva Bergman and Gerard Schneider, and the superb photographs by Irving Penn, original gelatine silver prints donated to the GAM by the photographer himself.  

In recent years, the GAM has further enriched its collection thanks to the considerable work carried out by the CRT Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art, which in the past decades has helped filling some important gaps, for instance with Jean Fautrier, while also expanding the existing nuclei of works (Karel Appel and Asger Jorn鈥檚) and updating the collection with the recent acquisitions of contemporary artworks that are now on display in the permanent exhibition, such as Hermann Nitsch鈥檚 installations and the impressive works by Anselm Kiefer, both showcased in the Soul-themed hall.