Formed from the core of the collection of Prince Odone di Savoia, donated to the city in 1866, through subsequent bequests and acquisition campaigns at major exhibitions, the Gallery has a regional character with openings on national and international artistic contexts.
In the exhibition path of the new Modern Art Gallery, inaugurated in 2004 with a new layout, some works from the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection – Regional Foundation for Culture and Entertainment have also been included: paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and furnishings of great quality.
Like all Modern Art Galleries in regional capitals, the Genoese gallery documents, with works of exceptional quality, the artistic production of the 19th and 20th centuries that took place in the belonging region, Liguria. It boasts the richest public collection related to the Gray School with works by Luxoro, Avendano, Issel, Musso, D’Andrade, Rayper.
It preserves the romantic production of Frascheri and Gandolfi, of the Macchiaioli Cabianca and Bechi, views of Genoa by the Venetian Ippolito Caffi, the Ticinese Carlo Bossoli, the Ligurian Pasquale Domenico Cambiaso; important paintings by Induno, D’Azeglio, Inganni, Gonin, Dall’Oca Bianca, Lancerotto, Mariani, Milesi, Morelli, Pasini, Daubigny, Delleani are also not missing.
It is the only public collection with 14 canvases by Rubaldo Merello; as many by Nicolò Barabino, and 7 canvases, two of about 18 sqm each, by the Tuscan Plinio Nomellini. On the 20th-century front, the collections illustrate the work of, among others, Olivari, Pennasilico, Figari, Maragliano, Baroni, Bassano, Discovolo, Cominetti, Dodero, Gagliardo, Galletti, Pietro and Alf Gaudenzi, Geranzani, Guerello, La Touche, Lucarini, Peluzzi, Perissinotti, Picollo, Giovanni and Tullio Salvatore Quinzio, Raggio, Rambaldi, Rodocanachi, Sacheri, Santagata, Verzetti, Viazzi and so on.
The internationally renowned artists active in the 20th century are also represented, Alfieri, Previati, Bistolfi, Andreotti, Cagli, Capogrossi, Carena, Casorati, Cerchi, De Grada, Depero, De Pisis, Donghi, Ferrazzi, Fillia, Guttuso, Mafai, Raphael Mafai, Martini, Tullio d’Albisola, Messina, Melli, Poulucci, Conti, Prini, Pirandello, Salietti, Sassu, Socrate, Survage, Tosi.
