I didn’t realize that there was an inscription on the steps until I crossed the road to take a picture of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, and I was excited like a child when I entered the hall.
‘Time is Out of Joint’ is the title of the exhibition started in October 2016 (open until 15.04.2018), quoting a verse of the Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
Just as that verse displaces even the most excellent translations (off its hinges, out of square, disjointed… unhinged?) the show makes you walk beyond the usual chronological order through hundreds of works of art (paintings, sculptures and installations) by dozens of 19th and 20th century artists.
From Gustav Klimt to Lucio Fontana, to De Chirico and Modigliani, from universally renown artists such as Andy Warhol to important artists but less known to poor common mortals like me, I experienced a fascinating trip without any coordinate but the spatial ones of the huge Gallery.
and Lorenzo Bartolini – Ritratto del conte Guelfo Estense Trotti Mosti (183-1840)
and Piet Mondrian – Grande Composizione A (1920) in the background
Okay, okay, I stop it (I don’t want to further spoil your visit to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome!).
So BEAUTIFUL and intense was the tour that soon afterwards I felt soooo hungry that I HAD to have lunch at the wonderful “Caffè delle arti” in the same building (you can see people sitting and eating through a glass door while you are visiting one of the exhibition’s areas).
Here you can choose to eat at the diner or à la carte; the service was excellent regardless of how full the restaurant was.
Between a fresco of angels and posters of past exhibitions, I really closed my visit to the Gallery in a magnificent style.
