Attilio Rossi (1909-1994) - Primavera

Oil painting on canvas by Attilio Rossi. The sole work measures 60 cm in width and 80 cm in height; with its frame it measures 94 cm in height and 75 cm in width. The frame visible in the photo is included as a courtesy and does not constitute an integral part of the work. Any damage to the frame is not a valid reason for complaints or order cancellations. Provenance: private collection.

Attilio Rossi, born in 1909 in Albairate and who passed away in 1994 in Milan, traversed the 20th century with a painterly experience ranging from abstract art to hyperrealism, ultimately positioning himself at the frontiers of the most advanced figurative work, taking into account the most important experiments of contemporary art. A public garden between Via Arena and Via Conca del Naviglio in Milan has been dedicated to him.

In the final period of his artistic career, his harbors, his still lifes and his self-portraits gave way to the grand cycle of metaphysical painting. His most ambitious work remains the large Via Crucis Oggi, made up of 14 canvases that trace contemporary history with an extremely bold formal exploration. His works are found in many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in numerous prestigious private collections.

The lively cultural engagement of Attilio Rossi is also confirmed by the friends who frequented him: Soldati, Reggiani, Licini, Fontana, Bogliardi, Veronesi, Ghiringhelli, Gatto, Sinisgalli, Quasimodo, Giolli, Bardi, Modiano, Carra’, Belli and Persico.

Attilio Rossi exhibited his paintings in numerous solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad and in numerous major group shows. He also participated in the Venice Biennale (1948 and 1962) and in the Rome Quadriennale. The City of Milan dedicated an important exhibition to him in 1975 at the Palazzo Reale. Among his anthological displays, the notable 1987 extensive survey at the Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Gallarate is worth mentioning.

In 1996, two years after his death, the Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente of Milan dedicated him to an extensive retrospective exhibition accompanied by an important catalog edited by Luciano Caramel.

Throughout his artistic career, Attilio Rossi won numerous prizes and received in 1974 from the City of Milan the gold medal for culture and the arts. In 2003 his name was inscribed among illustrious citizens in the Famedio of Milan.

In the field of art, Attilio Rossi created books including Buenos Aires en tinta china, 130 drawings with a preface by Jorge Luis Borges and poems by Rafael Alberti, and Milano in inchiostro di china, 130 drawings with text and poems by Salvatore Quasimodo. He also illustrated numerous books.

Many writings, essays and articles by important scholars and art critics such as Luciano Caramel, Dino Formaggio, Sebastiano Grasso, Jorge Luis Borges, Franco Russoli (author of a monograph), Raffaele De Grada, Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua, Dante Isella, Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Francesco Flora (author of a monograph), Fernanda Wittgens, Rossana Bossaglia, Leonardo Sinisgalli, Camilla Cederna, Alberico Sala, Raffaele Carrieri, Roberto Tassi, Vittorio Sgarbi, Leonardo Borgese, Eduardo Mallea, Guillermo De Torre, Arturo Serrano Plaja and many others, have dedicated writings to his paintings, as well as to his watercolors and drawings.

Attilio Rossi is regarded as a great innovator in the field of graphic art. In 1933, he founded and directed for two years the magazine Campo Grafico, revolutionary not only for its original and exemplary format but also because it renewed graphic design in Italy by opening it to the influences of Bauhaus and contemporary art (Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky, and so on). The Campisti, collaborators of the magazine, truly wrote “new rules” of Italian graphics, as seen in La Rassegna del Brutto, the magazine’s critical column that highlighted graphic works that did not meet the criteria of readability and innovation. Rossi continued this activity in the 1950s, directing the magazine Linea grafica, editing books and creating posters. He also wrote books on posters and ancient alphabets.

Rossi was also an important cultural organizer, organizing and curating numerous significant art exhibitions at the Palazzo Reale in Milan and at La Permanente. Among his initiatives was obtaining in 1953 from Pablo Picasso the loan of Guernica for the great Milanese exhibition dedicated to Picasso itself.