Nights
Five centuries of stars, dreams, plenilunes

As part of TERZA RISONANZA, from 29 October 2025 to 1 March 2026, the GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino presents "Notti. Cinque secoli di stelle, sogni, pleniluni" (Nights. Five centuries of stars, dreams, plenilunes), an exhibition that traces the representation of the night in figurative art from the early seventeenth century to the present day.

Curated by Fabio Cafagna and Elena Volpato, the exhibition presents around a hundred works from prestigious public institutions and private collections in Europe, a large number of which are part of the GAM's collections. The exhibition features works and documents that have marked the history of art and science from the seventeenth century to the present day.

Among the leading names are: Galileo Galilei, Maria Clara Eimmart, Giuseppe Antonio Petrini, Jules César Denis Van Loo, Joseph Wright of Derby, Antonio Canova, Francisco Goya, Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti, Giovanni Battista De Gubernatis, Ippolito Caffi, Victor Hugo, Odilon Redon, František Kupka, Franz von Stuck, Wenzel Hablik, Giacomo Balla, Paul Klee, Alberto Martini, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Felice Casorati, Arturo Martini, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joseph Cornell, Jackson Pollock, Louise Nevelson, Fausto Melotti, Osvaldo Licini, Sergio Romiti, Titina Maselli, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gino De Dominicis, Vija Celmins, Thomas Ruff, Merlin James, and David Schutter.

Organised thematically, in a sequence that aims to respect the chronological succession of the different cultural movements, the exhibition explores how the theme of night has been a favourite field for technical experimentation, scientific reflection and poetic introspection for artists over the centuries.
Through the selection of works on display in the rooms of the GAM, Nights. Five centuries of stars, dreams, plenilunes invites visitors to reflect on the appeal of the night as a place of ambiguity, mystery and discovery, in a constant dialogue between rationality and emotion, science and visionary thinking. The exhibition highlights the dual nature of the night, which, while traditionally attributed to the realm of the imagination, is also a time set aside for scientific investigation.

The exhibition opens with a section dedicated to the relationship between art and science: from Galileo Galilei's famous Sidereus Nuncius to the astronomical visions of Maria Clara Eimmart, in dialogue with works by Johann Carl Loth, Giuseppe Antonio Petrini, Pietro Ricchi and Antonio Canova.
Ample space is devoted to the nineteenth century, with nocturnes by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti and Giovanni Battista De Gubernatis, in whose work topographical investigation intertwines with the first hints of Romanticism.

The twentieth century is represented by works in which the night is interwoven with dreams and visions, as in the nocturnes of Victor Hugo, Odilon Redon, Franz von Stuck, František Kupka, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollock and Joseph Cornell.
Italian art is illustrated through the symbolism of the paintings of Alberto Martini, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio and Felice Casorati in dialogue with the ecstatic sculptures of Arturo Martini. One room is dedicated to the relationship between the dreamlike figures of Osvaldo Licini and the abstract imagination of Fausto Melotti.
The interest in nocturnal atmospheres in late twentieth-century painting is also represented through the works of Sergio Romiti and Titina Maselli.
One room presents the dialogue between the cosmic works of Wenzel Hablik and Giulio Paolini, accompanied by the futurist forces of propagation of Giacomo Balla and Luigi Russolo.... read the rest of the article»