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# 70 • OCTOBER 19 , 2015
tion lead by Palma in the
Roman artistic world allows Italy to approach an
artistic avant-garde. With
the acquisition of the
“Grande Sacco” of Alberto
Burri, blatantly explodes
the controversy between
abstraction and the more
consolidated realism. In
1959 Palma organizes an
exhibition of works by
Burri which causes strong
reactions even from the
political world, considering Burri too alien to the
traditional art.
In 1968, once again Palma
makes a bold gesture and
invites the Gruppo Laboratorio 70 to the National
Gallery of Modern Art,
creating disappointment
and discontent among the
traditional painters and
Several gestures of hers critics.
cut with tradition and
open to an art of protest. In In more than thirty years
1968 Palma Bucarelli gets as a director, Palma Buin touch with a new group carelli has been focusing
called “Gruppo Labora- on the enrichment and
torio 70” based in Rome, accommodation,
with
formed by the artists De modern museological criDominicis, Matteucci, No- teria, of the National Galtargiacomo and Grotte- lery of Modern Art. The
si. In Rome this group is Gallery lose its appearanseen as revolutionary in ce of simple container of
the field of Art. From the works of art, becoming a
exhibitions in the gallery, meeting point and a prothese artists decide to vider of useful information
bring art and gestures of not only for art critics and
art for the first time in the experts, but also for the
squares and in the streets. artists and the general puThe “Pillole Pincus” in St. blic. For the public, consiPeter’s and the guillotine dered a central element
in Piazza del Popolo, do of the enjoyment of art,
symbolize a break with Palma sets up an innovatiMannerist realist painting. ve service of "teaching", a
62 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
program of events which
includes conferences and
annual screenings, exhibitions, educational exhibits
with replicas of the most
great international artists
and works from the collection of the gallery.
First Italian woman to be
appointed director of a
public museum, Palma
Bucarelli led the National
Gallery of Modern Art from
1942 to 1975. She dies in
Rome, aged 88, on July 25,
1998. Loved and envied,
supported and opposed,
even protagonist of parliamentary questions for her
management and for her
acquisition policy, Palma
Bucarelli has left a strong
mark in the art history, not
only in Italy. She guaranteed a change of pace in a
difficult time, facing with
wisdom the difficult cultural challenge of those years, looking at art with free
and prophetic eyes.