The complete catalogue of Italy's two most important national contemporary art collections
The catalogue brings together the entire contemporary art collection, of works both on display and in store, acquired by the National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) and the National Gallery of 21st-century art (MAXXI). The time-span examined in the catalogue ranges from 1958 to 2008, the last 50 years being the period defined by the law protecting contemporary art. The catalogue, published in two volumes, has been conceived as an alphabetical list of artists’ names with an analytical index for the purposes of research. A final section is devoted to works which, due to their specific characteristics (for example, books by artists), or because of their origin or the way in which they were acquired (for example ships’ furnishings), demanded treatment which reflected these differences. The aim of the catalogue is to present the works so that they can be easily consulted, in a format of scientific charts and individual color reproductions of each work, covering the more than 1,350 works of contemporary art in Italy’s national collections.