Turin, early 1920s. The overwhelming figure of Felice Casorati is unleashed in the city, like a raging river. It will be a small revolution, which has come to awaken an artistic situation that has been dormant for too long. Thus opens the interesting exhibition which from today until 11 February, at the Accorsi Foundation in via Po, retraces the decade which, just a century ago, caused the artistic rivalry between Turin and Milan to explode. It is entitled «From Casorati to Sironi to the New Futurists. Turin-Milan 1920-1930, painting between classic and avant-garde” and is curated by two women, Nicoletta Colombo and Giuliana Godio.
The 1920s in Italy were tumultuous years of political uncertainty, but also of notable artistic experiences. Turin lags behind Milan. After the First World War it was a lost city, lost behind the war events, constantly anchored from an artistic point of view to two figures: Giacomo Grosso and Leonardo Bistolfi. And so, while on the banks of the Po we remain closely linked to the nineteenth century, beyond Ticino we experiment with First Futurism, which will never arrive in Turin, and will only see the light in 1923, with Second Futurism. Felice Casorati shuffles the cards.
He arrived in 1918 in an artistically fertile Turin. He gives the city that jolt that will change the way art is made. Casorati’s fortune is accompanied by three factors: the patronage of a charismatic figure such as the industrialist Riccardo Gualino, the intellectual environment of Piero Gobetti, the fascinating presence of Lionello Venturi. A mix definitely not in line with the fascist vocation. Unlike Milan.
In the rooms of the Accorsi Foundation we thus find works of great impact (70 in total). Like «Beethoven», from 1928, which takes us back to the great torments experienced by the painter in relation to music, which was quelled and supplanted with the transition to brushes. Or «Portrait of Renato Gualino», where the son of the great industrialist is represented in a static manner.
We then continue in the Milanese context. The picture definitely changes. Space is given to the works of Mario Sironi. The difference is palpable. Milan is the place of origin of Marinettian Futurism and the Avant-garde, it is the cradle of the “twentieth century” inspired by the theoretical lines of Margherita Sarfatti, whose premises focus on sobriety of color, anti-realism and anti-romanticism. Everything is punctuated by architectural and geometric lines.
The works stand out in a new museum context, so the old Accorsi conference room has now become a large environment, airy despite the dark colors chosen on the walls, to host temporary exhibitions. The impact is evident (the curious toilets for the public are also new, covered with mirrors and with a sky-blue ceiling complete with clouds, very bright, and very “Magrittian”).
The third section of the exhibition is a tribute to the “Turin Six”, when Casorati turns to the style of Paris, with the influences of Modigliani, Cezanne and Matisse. Finally, the Second Futurism between Turin and Milan. In particular, that Fillìa (pseudonym of Luigi Colombo) who under the Mole brings the colors and dynamics of a movement that shaped the twentieth century. Works that mirror those in Milan by Giacomo Balla, Bruno Munari and Enrico Prampolini