Ernesto Treccani (

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 ...

, 26 August 1920 – Milan, 27 November 2009) was a visual artist, writer and political activist.

Biography

Treccani was born in Milan. He joined very early on the art

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

groups and movements opposed to Fascist culture. At only 18 he founded and edited the magazine

Corrente di Vita ''Corrente di Vita'' was a biweekly Italian culture magazine published between 1938 and 1940. The Corrente Magazine In 1938 artist Ernesto Treccani founded the magazine ''Vita Giovanile'' with the financial backing of his father, Senator Giovanni ...

, and exhibited his work at Galleria Bottega di Corrente with

Renato Birolli Renato Birolli (10 December 1905 – 3 May 1959) was an Italian painter. Biography Birolli was born at Verona to a family of industrial workers. In 1923 he moved to Milan where he formed an avantguardist group with artists such as Renato Guttuso ...

Renato Guttuso Renato Guttuso (26 December 1911 – 18 January 1987) was an Italian painter and politician. His best-known works include ''Flight from Etna'' (1938–39), ''Crucifixion'' (1941) and ''La Vucciria'' (1974). Guttuso also designed for the theatre ( ...

Giuseppe Migneco Giuseppe Migneco (1908–1997) was an Italian painter of the Novecento Italiano. He often painted scenes of laborers at work in a naïve and expressionist style. Biography Migneco was born in Messina. His father was a train station master and his ...

Aligi Sassu Aligi Sassu (17 July 1912 – 17 July 2000) was an Italian painter and sculptor. Biography Aligi Sassu was born in Milan, Lombardy. He was the son of Lina Pedretti (from Parma, Emilia) and Antonio Sassu (from Sassari, Sardinia). His father ...

and later at Galleria della Spiga with Bruno Cassinari and

Ennio Morlotti Ennio Morlotti (21 September 1910 – 15 December 1992) was an Italian painter of the ''Corrente de Vita'' movement started in Milan as a counterpoint to nationalistic Futurism and the Novecento Italiano movements. His figures show an affinity to t ...

. Treccani's first solo exhibition was held in 1949 at the Galleria Il Milione in Milan, where he exhibited many times during his artistic path. After his experience with the

Italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

during

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 ...

, he continued his artistic career as leader of the "Pittura" Group and editor of art magazines such as ''Il 45'' and ''Realismo'', together with

Raffaele De Grada Raffaele De Grada (Milan, 1885–1957) was an Italian painter. Biography Initially trained by his father, a decorator, in Argentina and then from 1899 in Zurich, De Grada attended the academies of Dresden and Karlsruhe over the period 1902–05 ...

. In the 1950s his works was selected for the 25th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, as well as for the exhibition on the New Realists held at the

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and in New York, where he had a solo show at the Heller Gallery.
During this period the subjects of his paintings were influenced by

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

's rural society and by the urban industrial landscape of Milan and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. From the 1960s on, Treccani's prolific works and multiple initiatives demonstrated his continuous commitment to art and culture. Among the works of this period, there are five large paintings inspired by Pavese’s ''La luna e i falò'' (1962–63), the cycle of works ''Da Melissa a Valenza'' (1964–65), and the series of

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

s inspired by a trip to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. In 1976, major exhibitions of his work were held in

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

, at

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and at Hermitage in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He held also many solo exhibitions in art galleries and museums in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stuttgart and São Paulo. Treccani then developed the various features of his artistic research along parallel lines, continuing to work and exhibit in towns and cities in Italy and abroad, and alternating this “nomadic” activity with regular and creative stays in

Macugnaga Macugnaga ( Walser German: ''Z'Makana'') is a mountain village and a comune at elevation, in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the north of the Piedmont region of Italy. It is located at the base of Monte Rosa (), the second-tallest moun ...

and

Forte dei Marmi Forte dei Marmi () is a sea town and ''comune'' in the province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany (Italy). It is the birthplace of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013. Tourism is the principal activity of Forte dei Marmi's ...

. In 1978 he founded Fondazione Corrente, a center for cultural events, exhibitions and cultural debates, as well as a center for the collection and study of documents related to Realism. Treccani was also an accomplished writer and poet; Some of his books include ''Arte per amore'', ''Il segreto dell’arte'' and ''Un poco di fiele: poesie e disegni (1940–1970)''. In 1989 the City of Milan held a major retrospective exhibition on the artist at the

Royal Palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa * Abdin Palace, Cairo * Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo * Koubbeh Palace, Cairo * Tahra Palace, Cairo * Menelik Palace * Jubilee Palace * Guenete Leul Palace * Imperial Palace- Massa ...

. Another large retrospective of his works was held at Foundation Bandera in

Busto Arsizio Busto Arsizio (; lmo, label= Bustocco, Büsti Grandi) is an Italian city and ''comune'' in the south-easternmost part of the Province of Varese, in the region of Lombardy, in Northern Italy, north of Milan. The economy of Busto Arsizio is main ...

in 2003. In 2004 he created the cycle of large windows ''Energia, luci e colori''. They were exhibited 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 ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. In 2006 the town of

organized the exhibition ''Le mutazioni del realismo - Opere inedite 2003-06'' at the Fortino. In 2009 another large retrospective exhibition of Treccani's work inaugurated the renovated rooms of

Palazzo Barberini The Palazzo Barberini ( en, Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome. History T ...

Montichiari Montichiari (Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on December 27, 1991. The town is home to the Gabriele D'Annunzio airport (Italian: ''Aer ...

, just a few months before his death.

Legacy

In December 2009, during the 40th anniversary of the

Piazza Fontana bombing The Piazza Fontana bombing ( it, Strage di Piazza Fontana) was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana ...

, Treccani's painting ''Un popolo di volti'' was exhibited at the Royal Palace in Milan. In March 2011, the same venue exhibited the painting ''Le cinque giornate di Milano'' on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. ''Le parole e la pittura. Ernesto Treccani incontra la poesia, l’epica, il romanzo'', Treccani's first posthumous retrospective exhibition, was held at the Pinacoteca Civica of

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

and in 2013 ''La materia e la luce. Vetri, ceramiche e smalti di Ernesto Treccani''M. Muzio Treccani, S. Riolfo Marengo, G. Seveso, La materia e la luce. Vetri, ceramiche e smalti di Ernesto Treccani, Fondazione Corrente, Milano 2013 at Fondazione Corrente in Milan.

List of Major Public Collections

Puškin Museum, Moscow, Russia
br /
Museo del Novecento, Milano, Italy
br /
Museo della Permanente, Milano, Italy
br /
Studio Treccani, Fondazione Corrente, Milano, Italy
br /
Polo Museale Santa Chiara, San Gimignano, Italy
br /
MAGA, Museo d'arte di Gallarate, Gallarate (VA), Italy
br /
Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy
br /
Fondazione Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo, CN, Italy
br /
Galleria civica di arte contemporanea, Copparo, FE, Italy
br /
Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Latina, RM, Italy
br /
Museo civico, Montecarotto, AN, Italy
br /

br /
Museo d'arte sacra, San Gabriele di Isola del Gran Sasso d'Italia, Italy
br /
Museo Civico di Villa Groppallo, Vado Ligure, Italy
br /
Museo Civico della Paleontologia, Lizzano, Italy

Bibliography

Vittorio Fagone, ''Corrente, reprint gennaio 1938-maggio 1940'', La nuova foglio, Pollenza, 1978
Marco Valsecchi, ''Gli artisti di Corrente'', Edizioni di Comunità, Milano 1963
Mario De Micheli, ''Ernesto Treccani'', Edizioni del Milione, Milano 1962/> Duilio Morosini, ''Ernesto Treccani'', Milano, Edizioni del Milione, 1949

John Berger John Peter Berger (; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism ''Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to the ...

, ''Realist Painters of La Colonna'', The Leicester Galleries, London, 1956
''First American Exhibition of Paintings by Ernesto Treccani'', John Heller Gallery, New York, 1957
Raffaele De Grada, ''Mostra antologica di Ernesto Treccani'', Casa Municipale della Cultura, Livorno, 1958
''Retrospective exhibition of Ernesto Treccani. 150 paintings'', Puškin Museum, Moscow, 1976
''Retrospective exhibition of Ernesto Treccani. 150 paintings'', Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 1976
''Treccani. Peintures 1975-79'', Galerie Béneézit, Paris, 1979
''Ernesto Treccani. Malerei. Graphik. Plastik'', Ausstellung der Neunen Berliner Galerie im Alten Museum, Berlin, 1982
''Ernesto Treccani'', Galleria Forni, Amsterdam, 1982
''Ernesto Treccani'', Real Circulo Artistico Don Quijote de la Mancha, Barcelona, 1987
''Ernesto Treccani'', Galerie Moderne Italienische Kunst, Stuttgart, 1986
''Ernesto Treccani'', Paço Des Artes, São Paulo, 1988

Antonio Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic- Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political ...

, ''Studio Museo Treccani'', Edizioni del Leone, Venice, 1986
Ernesto Treccani, ''Arte per amore. Scritti e pagine di diario'', Feltrinelli, Milan, 1978
Ernesto Treccani, ''Il segreto dell'arte'', Amadeus, Maser, 1987
Ernesto Treccani, ''Un poco di fiele : poesie e disegni (1940-1970)'', Feltrinelli, Milan, 1970
Vittorio Fagone, Lamberto Vitali, ''Ernesto Treccani'', Edizioni del Milione, Milan, 1970
Antonio Negri, ''Ernesto Treccani: Mostra antologica'', Fabbri editore, Milan, 1989
Marina Pizziolo, ''Ernesto Treccani e il movimento di Corrente'',

Skira The festival of the Skira ( grc, Σκίρα) or Skirophoria ( grc, Σκιροφόρια) in the calendar of ancient Athens, closely associated with the Thesmophoria, marked the dissolution of the old year in May/June. Description At Athens, t ...

, Milan, 2003
Giorgio Seveso, Silvio Riolfo Marengo, ''Energia, luci e colori. Le vetrate di Ernesto Treccani'', Italian Institute of Culture, Budapest and Prague, 2006
Raffaele De Grada, ''Ernesto Treccani. Le mutazioni del realismo, opere inedite 2003-2006'', Il Fortino, Forte dei Marmi, 2006
Marina Pizziolo, ''Corrente, le parole della vita. Opere 1930-1945'', Skira, Milan, 2008
Giorgio Seveso, ''Ernesto Treccani, Arte per amore. Dalle poetiche del realismo alla poesia della realtà'', Grafo Edizioni, Montichiari, 2009
Giorgio Seveso (a cura di), ''Le parole e la pittura. Ernesto Treccani incontra la poesia, l’epica, il romanzo, catalogo della mostra'', Pinacoteca Civica di Savona, 2011
Maddalena Muzio Treccani, Silvio Riolfo Marengo, Giorgio Seveso, ''La materia e la luce. Vetri, ceramiche e smalti di Ernesto Treccani'', Fondazione Corrente, Milan, 2013

External links

Committee for the Protection of the work of Ernesto Treccani

Fondazione Corrente Onlus, Milan

Notes