ROME.- The Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome is marking a major milestone this winter, celebrating the centenary of its founding with an ambitious exhibition that brings together more than a century of artistic innovation, cultural policy, and civic identity. Titled GAM 100. A Century of the Municipal Gallery 1925–2025, the exhibition opened on December 20, 2025, and runs through October 11, 2026, offering visitors a sweeping journey through the evolution of Rome’s modern art collection.
The exhibition spans more than 120 works—including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper—drawn from the museum’s holdings and displayed across three floors of its current home on Via Francesco Crispi. Together, they tell the story of how Rome became the first Italian city to establish a civic collection dedicated to modern and contemporary art, beginning in 1925 with a modest nucleus of works housed at Palazzo Caffarelli on the Capitoline Hill.
Curated by Ilaria Miarelli Mariani and Arianna Angelelli, with a team of scholars and curators, GAM 100 traces not only the development of the collection but also the shifting artistic, political, and social contexts that shaped it. From the early acquisitions linked to major exhibitions at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni to the bold embrace of Futurism, Metaphysical painting, Magical Realism, and postwar abstraction, the exhibition reveals how closely the Gallery’s history is intertwined with the cultural life of Rome itself.
Visitors encounter masterpieces by some of the most influential figures of Italian modernism, including Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi, Fortunato Depero, Antonio Donghi, Giorgio de Chirico, Renato Guttuso, and Antonietta Raphaël Mafai. These works chart the city’s engagement with international artistic movements while also highlighting Rome’s role as a meeting point for diverse artistic voices.
The exhibition also reflects the Gallery’s complex institutional journey, from its early years and its controversial renaming as the Galleria Mussolini in the 1930s, to its closure during World War II and eventual rebirth in the 1950s. Subsequent decades saw the collection move between several venues before settling permanently in the former convent of the Discalced Carmelites, where it reopened to the public in 1995 and again in 2012 after extensive renovations.
Adding a layer of historical resonance to the centennial celebrations is the rediscovery of a seventeenth-century mural attributed to Sister Eufrasia della Croce, a Carmelite nun and contemporary of architect Plautilla Bricci. Long concealed beneath later layers, the mural is now visible once again on the museum’s first floor, depicting devotional scenes intended for the convent’s winter choir and offering a rare glimpse into the building’s sacred past.
GAM 100 is not only a retrospective but also a living project. A second rotation of works is scheduled for spring 2026, allowing visitors to encounter additional pieces that have rarely or never been shown before. The museum has also placed strong emphasis on accessibility, introducing tactile panels and dedicated educational routes for visitors with visual impairments, developed in collaboration with the Omero State Tactile Museum.
As Rome’s Gallery of Modern Art reflects on its first hundred years, the exhibition underscores the institution’s enduring mission: to respond to the spirit of its time, give space to artistic experimentation, and preserve a plural, evolving vision of modern art. In doing so, GAM 100 stands not only as a celebration of the past, but as a renewed commitment to the future of Rome’s cultural landscape.
