GAM – Galleria d'Arte Moderna

The GAM, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, holds one of Italy's most important collections of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art and was among the first civic museums in the country dedicated to modern work, with roots going back to 1863. It occupies a sober modernist building southwest of Turin's centre on Via Magenta, where the galleries are arranged thematically rather than strictly chronologically, grouping works around ideas such as nature, the body and the everyday. The collection numbers tens of thousands of paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs and includes pieces by Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio De Chirico, Paul Klee, Gustav Courbet and the Italian Futurists, alongside strong holdings of nineteenth-century Piedmontese painting and a lively programme of temporary exhibitions and contemporary installations. A neon work by Mario Merz on the facade signals the museum's engagement with recent art. Most visitors spend an hour and a half to two hours here, and the thematic hang rewards a slower, more reflective pace than a chronological gallery. The museum is quietest on weekday mornings and busier during major temporary shows and on the free first Sunday of the month. Photography without flash is usually permitted in the permanent collection, though temporary exhibitions may differ. Set a short tram ride or roughly fifteen-minute walk from Porta Nuova station, the GAM is slightly away from the main tourist circuit, which adds to its calm. For visitors interested in how Italian art moved from the academic painting of the Risorgimento era into Futurism, Arte Povera and the present day, it offers one of the richest overviews available anywhere in Piedmont.