Anita Spinelli (8 January 1908 – 24 March 2010) was a Swiss artist, painter and drawer also known for her approaches to graphic work.

Life

Spinelli was born Anita Corti, in

Balerna Balerna is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Balerna is first mentioned in 1115 as ''Barerna''. In 844 and 865, the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Milan purchased land in the ''concilium'' o ...

Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1908, the third child of four to Gemma and Gaetano Corti. She was initiated to art quite early. Her father, a businessman in

wine making Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and w ...

, patronised several artists. After middle school she attended the Arts and Crafts School in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

and Guido Gonzato's studio. Defying conventions and her family, she registered at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di ...

of Art in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, attended

Aldo Carpi Aldo Carpi (6 October 1886 – 27 March 1973) was an Italian artist, painter and writer, author of a collection of memoirs concerning his imprisonment in the infamous Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Biography Born in Milan, early in his you ...

's special courses in

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and graduated in 1933. During this period she immersed herself in the buoyant artistic life of Milan, travelled to Paris and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and visited

Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...

, where she lived in the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

to study

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

s. In 1932 she married Paolo Spinelli, a civil servant and landowner with whom she had two daughters. They moved to the mansion of Pignora,

Novazzano Novazzano is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Novazzano is first mentioned in 875 as ''Nepotiano''. In 1152 it was mentioned as ''Novezano''. Novazzano been inhabited since the Roman er ...

in Ticino, where she lived and worked for most of her life.Brazzola (2008) She became an active member of the Society of Swiss Artists, Sculptors and Architects and set out her place in an artistic scene dominated by men. Invited to the XIX and XX National Art Exhibits of 1936 and 1941 her work was remarked on for her innovative mode of expression. She had her first solo exhibit in 1938 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

. To overcome regional and cultural isolation she engaged after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

until the 1990s in extended travelling in the

Mediterranean Basin In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...

and Europe, Africa, Central America and China with repeated and prolonged stays in the US. These travels were important sources of inspiration and have influenced her perception of light and space, which are central elements of her art. During her stay in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, Germany, in the early 1970s she took up engraving techniques again, neglected since art school, and through her novel approach this became a significant part of her work. Later on, Spinelli also engaged in art-science projects initiated by the

Lausanne University The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switze ...

department of

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

with the task to render and visualize neurological disorders, medical gestures and different forms of

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

through her artistic approach. The themes treated were "The Hand in Neurology" (1987), "Dizziness and Mouvement" (1995), "Headache, Headaches and Faces" (1992) and resulted in several exhibits and publications. The confrontation of two fundamentally different dimensions of reality (the scientific approach that aims at evidence, and the artistic and sensitive approach that elicits the invisible but maintains a mystery) paradoxically revealed certain complementaries and the capacity of art to shed light on

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

phenomena and vice versa. She regularly showed her work in personal and collective exhibitions in institutional and private spaces. In 2002 a permanent display of her work has been created at the "Quadreria" in

, Ticino. Her last major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

was organized by the Museum of Art of Lugano in 2008. Anita Spinelli died on 24 March 2010 in

Mendrisio Mendrisio (; lmo, label= Ticinese, Mendris ) is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Mendrisio is the seat of the Accademia di Architettura of the university of Italian-speaking Switzerland (U ...

of the consequences of an accident that occurred in her studio. She had continued to create art until her death. Her work is represented in museums, as well as in institutional and private collections in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Work

Spinelli's media were mainly oil paintings of different formats,

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

s and mixed techniques, in which she elaborated her graphic work with colour and ink. In the large oil formats of her latter period she deployed

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

s and

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

s. Spinelli's work explores individual and societal questions that characterized her long life as an actor and witness of the 20th and early 21st century. She appears to have attached a central importance to the human figure caught in everyday situations and attitudes. Her work roots in reality, an everyday reality that she transforms through imaginative accelerations into figures, mental figures, to capture another more hidden reality.Walter Schönenberger in: Maria Cristina Donati (2008), p 8. According to

Berger Berger is a surname in both German language, German and French language, French, although there is no etymological connection between the names in the two languages. The French surname is an occupational name for a shepherd, from Old French ''bergi ...

, Spinelli's work can be read on at least three levels of analysis: the first is her look that is not purely visual but involves participation; a further level, is that of self-reflection – she takes position with humour or irony, with joy or grief; on a third level, she elaborates

existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

questions. The quests and existential conditions, which encompass the very essence of human life, make up the core of her subjects: hope, joy but also loneliness, silence, memory, fear, separation, oppression, war and hardship. She expresses the interior sentience of being. In Spinelli's words:

"It is silent, curious listening: a search for the essence of the object, stripped of the superfluous, with hard work and without complacency. To make art means to me being alive among the living. My characters are myself. With them I share the load of good and evil. You cannot cheat."Franco Regli In: Claudio Nembrini, Angela Regli ed. Anita Spinelli – la quadreria e altre opere. 2002, p. 38.

Her work spanning over almost a century, Spinelli has addressed and analysed the formal debates of her time. She explored from

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

to post-

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

deconstruction, from

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

abstractionism Abstractionism is the theory that the mind obtains some or all of its concepts by abstracting them from concepts it already has, or from experience.Geach, Peter (1957) Mental Acts - Their Contents and Their Objects. Routledge Kegan Paul. One may, ...

(in particular

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

) to new forms of figuration, however never adhering completely to any one of these positions. Rather she synthesized and bent them freely to her needs. Spinelli developed a pictorial code characterized by vivid chromatics, dynamism, a wide freedom and complexity in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

, determined by

simultaneity Simultaneity may refer to: * Relativity of simultaneity, a concept in special relativity. * Simultaneity (music), more than one complete musical texture occurring at the same time, rather than in succession * Simultaneity, a concept in Endogeneit ...

and disruption of perspective, where the figure emerges from an abstract spatiality. Spinelli's language is considered

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

in nature, but where a visionary spirit superposes or coexists with the tragic element. In her last period, her color-light rarefies to a

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

dimension of pure light, transparency and lightness. Her novel approaches, the sense of freedom and of expressive possibilities together with a constant poetic and ethical tension mark her contribution to the art world.

References

* Matteo Bellinelli. ''Il secolo di Anita.'' Documentary (49'46'')''.'' Televisione della Svizzera Italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 23 March 2008 * Valeria Bruni. ''Anita Spinelli''. Televisione della Svizzera Italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 17 January 2008 * Graziano Terrani. ''Anita Spinelli''. Televisione della Svizzera italiana (TSI), Il Quotidiano, Lugano-Comano, 28 November 1998 * Graziano Terrani: ''Dipingere e vivere''. Televisione della Svizzera italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 27 April 1988 * ''Incontro con la pittrice Anita Spinelli''. A cura di Claudio Nembrini. Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Rete 2, Filo Diretto, Lugano-Comano, 20 December 1998 * ''Anita Spinelli: il filo incandescente della vita''. A cura di Claudio Nembrini, con la partecipazione di Walter Schönenberger, Mario De Micheli e Anita Spinelli. Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Rete 2, Il mondo delle immagini, Lugano-Comano, 17 December 1990 * Eros Bellinelli. ''Mostra di Anita Spinelli sala Diego Chiesa Chiasso.'' Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, dicembre 1980 * P. Jelmorini. ''Anita Spinelli.'' Agenda culturale, 15 March 1978 * Eros Bellinelli. ''Anita Spinelli Corti, pittrice.'' Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, 6 January 1955 * Piero Bianconi. ''Anita Spinelli o della vocazione''. Radio della Svizzera Italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, 1951 * V. Cavalleris. ''Les lettres et les arts en Suisse italienne. Femmes écrivains et artistes du Tessin.'' Radio de Suisse Romande (RSR), Lausanne, 25 February 1939

Reference books

* ''Biografisches Lexikon der Schweizer Kunst. Dictionnaire biographique de l'art suisse. Dizionario biografico dell'arte svizzera''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Karl Jost. Zürich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1998, 2 Bde. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Künstlerverzeichnis der Schweiz. Unter Einschluss des Fürstentums Liechtenstein. Répertoire des artistes suisses, la Principauté du Liechtenstein incluse. Dizionario degli artisti svizzeri, incluso il Principato di Liechtenstein. 1980–1990''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Karl Jost. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1991. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Lexikon der zeitgenössischen Schweizer Künstler. Dictionnaire des artistes suisses contemporains. Catalogo degli artisti svizzeri contemporanei''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Hans-Jörg Heusser. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1981. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Künstlerlexikon der Schweiz. XX. Jahrhundert'', Hrsg.: Verein zur Herausgabe des schweizerischen Künstler-Lexikons; Redaktion: Eduard Plüss. Hans Christoph von Tavel, Frauenfeld: Huber, 1958–1967, 2 Bde. ''(in German, French and Italian)''

External links

SIKART
Swiss Institute for Art Research
swissbib
metacatalog of Swiss University Libraries and the Swiss National Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Spinell, Anita 1908 births 2010 deaths Swiss female models Swiss women painters Modern painters Brera Academy alumni Swiss contemporary artists People from Ticino Swiss painters Swiss engravers 20th-century Swiss women artists Women engravers 20th-century engravers

Life

Work

References

Further reading

Monographs

Book illustrations

Filmography and broadcasts

Reference books

External links