Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art

The Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art, known by the acronym GAM, is the main Verona museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Located in the Renaissance Palazzo Forti on Corso Sant'Anastasia, the gallery is named after Achille Forti (1878-1937), a naturalist and Veronese collector who donated his art collection to the city, forming the museum's original core. The GAM houses a permanent collection of around 1,400 works (paintings, sculptures, drawings) by Italian artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular attention to the Venetian school.

In addition to the historical collection, the museum is famous for its major temporary exhibitions of international level that have brought to Verona masterpieces by masters such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Dalí, Chagall and Klimt, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. The exhibitions change several times a year, alternating retrospectives of great artists with thematic shows on contemporary art.

Achille Forti and the donation of the collection

Achille Forti (1878-1937) was an eclectic figure: an internationally renowned botanist specialised in the study of algae, but also a passionate art collector and patron. Born into a wealthy Veronese family, Forti devoted his life to scientific research (he became director of the Natural History Museum of Verona) and to collecting contemporary art. He frequented the Venetian and Milanese artistic circles of the early twentieth century and met artists, critics and gallerists.

His art collection was formed systematically between 1900 and 1937: he bought works at galleries, directly from artists, and at the major national and international exhibitions (Venice Biennale, Milan Triennale). He favoured contemporary Italian artists: Venetian landscape painters, portraitists, and painters experimenting with Divisionism, Futurism and Novecento Italiano. He also financially supported promising young Veronese artists, buying their works while they were still unknown.

On his death in 1937, Forti bequeathed his entire collection (around 200 works) to the City of Verona on the condition that it be publicly displayed in the family palazzo (Palazzo Forti itself), thus creating the first nucleus of the future Gallery of Modern Art. The following year, in 1938, the city officially inaugurated the museum dedicated to its generous donor. Since then the collection has been enriched through further donations, acquisitions and bequests, reaching today's 1,400 works.

During the twentieth century, the original Forti collection was progressively enriched. In the 1950s and 1960s, the city acquired works by twentieth-century Venetian artists to document the evolution of regional art: sculptures by Arturo Martini, paintings by Gino Rossi, and works by Guido Cadorin. Veronese families donated inherited paintings, helping to diversify the collection chronologically and stylistically.

In the 1970s and 1980s, interest shifted towards contemporary art: works were acquired by living Italian artists experimenting with abstract, informal and conceptual languages. The gallery organised solo shows by contemporary artists, some of which ended with the purchase of works for the permanent collection. Thus a significant body of late-twentieth-century Italian art was assembled, documenting the main artistic movements: Abstractionism, Informal Art, Arte Povera and Transavanguardia.

The collection also includes a rich section of graphic art (drawings, watercolours, prints) that bears witness to the creative process of the artists. Preparatory drawings for paintings, sketches and studies show the design phases of art. Works on paper, more fragile than oil paintings, are exhibited on rotation to protect them from light.

A specialised library with exhibition catalogues, art monographs and historical magazines supports the museum's research activity and is available by appointment to scholars.

Beginning in the 2000s, the GAM developed a programme of major temporary exhibitions that has turned the museum into one of the leading exhibition spaces in the Veneto region. Retrospectives dedicated to the French Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Degas), the Post-Impressionists (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne) and twentieth-century masters (Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Chagall) have brought hundreds of thousands of visitors to Verona, many from outside the city. These blockbuster exhibitions, organised in collaboration with the world's most important museums (Musée d'Orsay, MoMA, Hermitage, Prado), have generated economic resources that have funded the restoration of Palazzo Forti, the acquisition of new works for the permanent collection, and educational activities for schools.

Although criticised by some for their commercial approach, these events have undoubtedly broadened the museum's audience and made the GAM known nationally. Alongside the blockbuster exhibitions, the gallery maintains a programme of research-driven shows dedicated to lesser-known but significant artists, specific artistic movements, and dialogues between ancient and contemporary art. Lectures with curators and critics, meetings with living artists, themed guided tours and educational workshops for children enrich the cultural offering.

The museum collaborates with the University of Verona on research projects on Venetian art, internships for art history students, and dissertation projects on the collections.