Gino Severini

Cortona, 1883 - Parigi, 1966

after joining the Futurist movement at the invitation of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Boccioni, in April 1910 he signed the Manifesto tecnico della pittura futurista (once again together with Balla, Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Luigi Russolo). Severini helped organize the first Futurist exhibition at the "Galerie Bernheim-Jeune" in Paris in February 1912 and participated in subsequent Futurist exhibitions in Europe and the United States. In London, at the Marlborough Gallery, he held his first solo exhibition, which was subsequently presented at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin (both in 1913).

He completed his first studies at the Technical School and in 1899 he moved with his mother to Rome, where he began working as an accountant. In the capital he met Umberto Boccioni, who also recently arrived in Rome and who later became one of the major futurism theorists. Together, Severini and Boccioni visit the studio of Giacomo Balla, master of the "divisionist" technique. After moving to Paris in November 1906, Severini studied impressionist painting and met Paul Signac, an exponent of Neo-Impressionism. He soon met all the leading artists of the French capital: Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Amedeo Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso; Lugné-Poë and his theatrical circle; the poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Fort, and Max Jacob; the author Jules Romains. Despite his stay abroad, Severini did not interrupt his contacts with Italy, anything but: after joining the Futurist movement at the invitation of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Boccioni, in April 1910 he signed the Manifesto tecnico della pittura futurista (once again together with Balla, Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Luigi Russolo). Severini helped organize the first Futurist exhibition at the "Galerie Bernheim-Jeune" in Paris in February 1912 and participated in subsequent Futurist exhibitions in Europe and the United States. In London, at the Marlborough Gallery, he held his first solo exhibition, which was subsequently presented at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin (both in 1913). During the Futurist period, Severini played an important role in connecting French and Italian artistic circles.From 1916 to 21, the year in which he published "Du cubisme au classicisme"In 1923 he was present at the Biennale Romana; he participates in the two Milan exhibitions of the Italian Twentieth Century (1926 and 29) and that of Geneva (1929). In 1928 he returns to the capital, while elements from the ancient landscape of Rome begin to appear in his work. In 1930, with the other "Italians of Paris"is present at the Venice Biennale; he participates in the Quadriennali of 1931 and '35, the year in which he wins the Grand Prize for painting, presenting an entire room and settles in Rome. Back in Paris, he alternated stays between France and Rome. He made a decoration for the Universal Exhibition in Paris and in 1938 he exhibited his mosaics at the Galleria della Cometa.In the 1950s, he returned to the subjects of his Futurist period: dancers, light and movement. Among the works of these years: in the church of Saint-Pierre in Freiburg the mosaic with the Delivery of the Keys is inaugurated. He exhibited mosaics at the Cahiers d'Art gallery in Paris. He organizes a conference in Ravenna on Mosaic and mural art and study on Mosaic and mural art in antiquity and modern times in "Felix Ravenna". Decorate the offices of KLM in Rome and Alitalia in Paris. The Rose Fried Gallery in New York hosts the exhibition The Futurists, Balla - Severini 1912-1918. In Rome he works on the reconstruction on photographic bases and in memory of "La danza del pan al Monico" destroyed during the Second World War. A solo exhibition is dedicated to him in Paris. He receives the National Painting Prize of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. At the Ninth Quadriennale in Rome he exhibited two collages and three sculptures. Also in the capital he exhibited at the Accademia di San Luca. His autobiography is reprinted.

Severini and the theater.

The masks of the Commedia dell'Arte were among his favorite subjects in painting and scenography. The theatre was first commissioned in 1929 with the Facade backdrop by W. Walton. Other works include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Busoni’s Arlecchino (both for the 1940 Venice Festival) and Orazio Vecchi’s Amphiparnaso for the 1938 "Maggio fiorentino", where he collaborated again for the costumes of La strega di Lasca (1939) and Deliciae populi by A. Casella (1951). The work in question is the sketch for the costume of Monna Sabatina, protagonist of the aforementioned comedy The Witch by Anton Francesco Grazzini called the Lasca (1503-1584). In 1939 the director Giorgio Venturini decides to stage the comedy, on the occasion of the "V Maggio Musicale Fiorentino" to be held in Piazza de' Peruzzi in Florence and asks for the collaboration of Gino Severini (with whom he had already collaborated the year before, on the occasion of the "IV Maggio Musicale Fiorentino") for the realization of the designs for the costumes. The two work closely for several months; of this remains, in addition to the drawings, the written correspondence annotated by the artist as a diary of work to witness the common project and mutual esteem.

Museums:

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum
Rotterdam, Boymans-Van Beuningen
Basel, Kunstmuseum
Berlin
Florence, Modern Art Gallery
Rome, Modern Art Gallery
Milan, Academy of Brera
Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Museum
La Haye, Gemeentemuseum
New York, MoMA, Solomon Guggenheim Museum
Paris, Musé National d'Art Moderne, Biblioteque Nationale
Saint-Etienne, Musée de l'art et de l'Industrie

Bibliography:

Enciclopedia Universale Seda della Pittura Moderna, Milano, Seda, 1969; A. M. Comanducci, Dizionario illustrato dei Pittori, Disegnatori e Incisori Italiani Moderni e Contemporanei, Milano, Luigi Patuzzi Editore, 1972; Severini e il teatro, catalogo della mostra (Pesaro, Galleria di Franca Mancini), Edizioni Il Teatro degli artisti, Ravenna, 1993.

© Gino Severini, by SIAE 2023