Sant’Anna Modern Art Gallery

The Modern Art Gallery of Palermo (GAM), located in the historic Kalsa district, is a museum dedicated to modern art that has occupied two historic buildings since 2006: the former Franciscan convent of the Church of Sant’Anna, in Baroque style (17th century), and the Palazzo Bonet, in Spanish Gothic style (15th century), built in 1480 by the Catalan merchant Gaspare Bonet.

Gallery tour

View of Palermo (Francesco Iojacono, 1875)

The gallery holds more than 200 works, mainly paintings and about forty sculptures, covering a period from the 18th to the early 20th century. The collections, originating from purchases, private donations and acquisitions at the Venice Biennales, illustrate the evolution of Italian and Sicilian art, from the end of Neoclassicism to Neorealism. Among the artists represented are Carlo Carrà, Renato Guttuso, Giovanni Boldini, Francesco Lojacono, Ettore De Maria Bergler, Antonino Leto, Michele Catti and Giorgio de Chirico.

The museum route is organized by levels: the ground floor is devoted to large-format works with historical, mythological and Romantic themes, including scenes related to the Risorgimento and the figure of Garibaldi. The first floor presents sections dedicated to landscape, aestheticism, literary themes and the exoticism of the 19th and 20th centuries. The second floor brings together works from the Venice Biennales as well as the earliest expressions of modern art in Italy and Sicily.

Additional spaces are reserved for temporary exhibitions, a plaster cast gallery, educational activities, as well as a library and reception services. The alternation between the Gothic architecture of Palazzo Bonet and the Baroque volumes of the former convent gives the visit a heritage dimension.

Where is the Modern Art Gallery of Palermo

Information

Museums of Palermo