Attilio Rossi (1909-1994) - Primavera

Oil painting on canvas by Attilio Rossi. The sole artwork 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 is not 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 painting experience that ranged from abstract art to hyperrealism, until he positioned himself on the frontiers of the most advanced figuration, 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 work, his quays, his still lifes, and his self-portraits gave way to the great cycle of metaphysical painting. His most demanding work remains the large Via Crucis Oggi, composed of 14 canvases that retrace contemporary history with an extremely bold formal research. His works are in many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in numerous prestigious private collections.

The lively cultural commitment of Attilio Rossi is 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 many major group exhibitions. He also participated in the Venice Biennale (1948 and 1962) and in the Quadriennale of Rome. The Municipality of Milan dedicated an important exhibition to him in 1975 at Palazzo Reale. Among his anthologies one recalls the extensive 1987 survey at the Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Gallarate. In 1996, two years after his death, the Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente of Milan dedicated to him a large retrospective exhibition accompanied by an important catalog curated by Luciano Caramel.

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

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

To his paintings, but also to his watercolors and drawings, writings, essays and articles have been dedicated 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.

Attilio Rossi is also regarded as a great innovator in the field of graphic art. In 1933, in fact, he founded and directed for two years the magazine Campo Grafico, revolutionary not only for its original and exemplary executive formula, but because it completely renewed graphic design in Italy, opening it to the influences of Bauhaus and contemporary art (Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky, and so on). Moreover, the Campisti, collaborators of the magazine, really wrote “new rules” of Italian graphic art; consider, for example, La Rassegna del Brutto, a critical column of the magazine that highlighted graphic realizations that did not meet the standards of readability and innovation. Attilio Rossi continued this activity also in the fifties, directing the magazine Linea grafica, curating books and making posters. In this field as well he wrote books on posters and ancient alphabets.

Attilio Rossi was also an important cultural organizer, who produced and curated numerous large art exhibitions at the Palazzo Reale in Milan and at the Permanente. Among his initiatives was obtaining in 1953 from Pablo Picasso the loan of Guernica for the great exhibition dedicated to Picasso himself in Milan.