Saturday 27 October 2012

Italy's National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art


I have mixed feelings about the Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea in Rome, which I visited last weekend.


There is some truly interesting art inside a gorgeous building, but also some weird stuff all jumbled together in a way that makes me wonder if it even has a curator. 

I'm certainly no expert, but the mix of periods and styles and subjects and disciplines was off-putting to me. I lurched from Cezanne (top) to Modigliani (above) to some Italian portraits from the 19th century, to sculpture, to the dreaded Pre-Raphaelites. 

  
The gallery - not to be confused with the museum of contemporary art - is located in the Villa Borghese (which I have come to learn refers to the entire very, very, very large park.) It's easy to reach by tram if you don't feel like hoofing it. They also have a rather posh outdoor cafe. 

 

At present, there is a Paul Klee exhibit on, but frankly it was small and to my mind, not terribly compellng.
Still, the galleria overall is an interesting change from Rome's otherwise (and natural) emphasis on its ancient glories and Renaissance and Baroque art wonders. It's also off the beaten path so I doubt it is ever crowded. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you been to Maxie or Macro? We were thinking we might need some modern after 3 weeks of Modonna and baby art!

Kathryn said...

Hey Sandra, nice post. I'm not in your league of art fan, but I do like some modern art. One session of drop-in art class focus on Modigliani, so now I can recognize his work (saw one in London - felt very smart? - yeah - out of 100's, I knew 1). JDeQ you are definitely a trooper if you can do 3 weeks of holy family - I've skipped entire sections of art galleries because I could not take one more.

sandrac said...

Hey Jerry, I've been to the Macro and while the art was not to my taste, I thought the building itself - the architecture - was amazing. See you soon!

Thanks, Kathryn! I'm impressed to read that you've done some art classes, that's something I would like to do. And I've also skipped parts of museums and galleries from overload - who can take so much in one session?! Sensory overload.

Trekcapri said...

Hi Sandra, thank you so much for sharing your impressions on this Gallery. Rome has so much art to offer. It's so nice to get so many ideas from your first hand experiences and knowledge.

Have a wonderful week.

Annie said...

Love the overload comments. It definitely happens to me. And some modern art is nice after all the church art. This sounds like a cool museum even if it is disorganized!