Ernesto Treccani

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

Biography

Treccani was born in Milan. Very early, he joined the art avant-garde groups and movements opposed to Fascist culture. At only 18 he founded and edited the magazine Corrente di Vita, and exhibited his work at Galleria Bottega di Corrente with Renato Birolli, Renato Guttuso, Giuseppe Migneco, Aligi Sassu and later at Galleria della Spiga with Bruno Cassinari and Ennio Morlotti.

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 during World War II, 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. In the 1950s his works was selected for the 25th Venice Biennale, as well as for the exhibition on the New Realists held at the Leicester Galleries in London 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's rural society and by the urban industrial landscape of Milan and Paris.

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 watercolors inspired by a trip to Cuba. In 1976, major exhibitions of his work were held in Volgograd, at Pushkin Museum in Moscow and at Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. 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 and Forte dei Marmi. 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. Another large retrospective of his works was held at Foundation Bandera in Busto Arsizio in 2003.

In 2004 he created the cycle of large windows Energia, luci e colori. They were exhibited in Lugano, Riga, Budapest and Prague. In 2006 the town of Forte dei Marmi 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 in Montichiari, just a few months before his death.

Legacy

In December 2009, during the 40th anniversary of the Piazza Fontana bombing, 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 and in 2013 La materia e la luce. Vetri, ceramiche e smalti di Ernesto Treccani at Fondazione Corrente in Milan.

List of Major Public Collections Puškin Museum, Moscow, Russia Museo del Novecento, Milano, Italy Museo della Permanente, Milano, Italy Studio Treccani, Fondazione Corrente, Milano, Italy Polo Museale Santa Chiara, San Gimignano, Italy MAGA, Museo d'arte di Gallarate, Gallarate (VA), Italy Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy Fondazione Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo, CN, Italy Galleria civica di arte contemporanea, Copparo, FE, Italy Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Latina, RM, Italy Museo civico, Montecarotto, AN, Italy MdAO, Museo d'arte di Avellino, Italy Museo d'arte sacra, San Gabriele di Isola del Gran Sasso d'Italia, Italy Museo Civico di Villa Groppallo, Vado Ligure, Italy Museo Civico della Paleontologia, Lizzano, Italy