“A True and Honest Partnership between Members of the Same Civil Body”: Franco Russoli and Pirelli magazine
This is how, in Pirelli magazine’s issue no. 1 of 1969, Franco Russoli describes the partnership he had entered into with the bimonthly and with its director, Arrigo Castellani, who had recently passed away. Russoli, an art historian and critic, started contributing in 1962 with a column entitled “Pretesti e appunti” (“Pretexts and notes”), which appeared in every issue of the magazine until 1970. In the pages that the magazine dedicated to the late director, he outlined the nature of their work together: “not art as a topic at the service of the company’s printed communication and advertising interests, nor the exploitation of a platform for futile artistic digressions”, but a real partnership freely entered into by two intellectuals who were convinced of the importance of art for social and civil progress.
Franco Russoli was born in Florence on 9 July 1923. After graduating in the history of art and initial work experiences in Tuscany, he moved to Milan in 1950. Here he began working with Fernanda Wittgens, the superintendent of monuments and galleries in Lombardy, as well as the first female director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, at a time of exceptional dynamism in Milanese culture. Commemorating Russoli on the Pinacoteca di Brera website, Paolo Martelli writes that “it could be said that Wittgens and Russoli were for art what Grassi and Strehler were for the theatre. Italy needed to be salvaged from 25 years of isolation.” It was thanks to them that, in 1951, the heavily bombed Poldi Pezzoli Museum reopened, and the great exhibition on Pablo Picasso at the Palazzo Reale, the most important on the artist ever held in Europe, was curated by Russoli himself. It was in these years of reconstruction and rebirth of culture in Milan that, on the initiative of the poet-engineer Leonardo Sinisgalli, the Pirelli magazine experience came about, creating a place of encounter between scientific and humanistic culture. Russoli and the magazine crossed paths a few years later. In 1957, when Russoli took over from Wittgens as the director of Brera – a position he held until his death – Arrigo Castellani became editor-in-chief of the bimonthly published by Pirelli. With his “confidence in the social function of free enterprise that is conscious of its Enlightenment duties”, the new director had a precise programme to promote art in the pages of the magazine. To achieve this, he turned to Russoli, whom he had met during an auction evening. It was 1962 and Castellani decided to give the art historian and critic a regular column in the magazine: “a sort of notebook or notes on topics that he will be completely free to choose”, he wrote to Vittorio Sereni, then head of the Press Office at Pirelli, in a letter now in the poet’s archive. And thus “Pretexts and notes” came into being, with short articles in the form of features on various aspects of art, and digressions that Russoli wanted as the “pretext and starting point for introducing and highlighting discussions on issues of civil scope”. In these years of reflection on the civil function of art and on the role of museums as centres of cultural formation and social integration, the column for Pirelli magazine was one of the many ways in which Russoli helped disseminate artistic culture. “A means” – he wrote, when talking about his column – “to revive […] the notion of a duty and a right to cultural ‘service’, in its most concrete and dedicated forms. […] The transition from articles on international contemporary art, with its great exponents and its biennials and exhibitions, to calls for the creation of living museums of modern art in Italy, had to come about in a natural manner”.
Russoli’s contribution extended well beyond the column, for in his more general partnership with Arrigo Castellani and Vittorio Sereni, he helped bring other aspects of art to Pirelli magazine. This included the wonderful experience of “artists in the factory”, but also the publication of previously unexhibited works by artists, often accompanied by the text of a writer. Russoli writes in the commemoration of Castellani in 1969: “I had the opportunity to attend many meetings between Arrigo and the artists: Giacometti, Guttuso, Ajmone, Carmassi, Fontana, Sambonet, Cascella, Sassu, Biasion, Treccani, Murabito, Cazzaniga, Manzi, Chighine, Sutherland, Cagli and others […] many of them worked with his magazine”. Russoli had curated the catalogue of the first solo exhibition by the painter Arturo Carmassi in 1954 and the first monograph in 1960: after the photo service by Ugo Mulas on the Venice Biennale in 1962, where Carmassi exhibited his sculptures, the painter published a series of plates with an introduction by Russoli in issue number 5-6 of 1966. In 1968, also the Mulas’s photo service on Lucio Fontana was accompanied by a article written by Russoli. Another noteworthy article, also published in 1966, was an exposé entitled “In trecento contro i draghi“ (“300 Against the Dragons”) in favour of the “Italia da salvare” campaign promoted by Italia Nostra for the protection of Italy’s artistic and scenic heritage. Russoli’s column ended in 1970, shortly before the magazine closed down in 1972. Russoli continued working to promote art in the 1970s with publications, articles and television broadcasts. He also remained committed to the dream of a “Grande Brera” and of protecting Italy’s artistic heritage, taking part in the foundation of FAI, in 1975, together with Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi, Renato Bazzoni, and Alberto Predieri.
An important legacy to remember – and celebrate – on the centenary of his birth.
This is how, in Pirelli magazine’s issue no. 1 of 1969, Franco Russoli describes the partnership he had entered into with the bimonthly and with its director, Arrigo Castellani, who had recently passed away. Russoli, an art historian and critic, started contributing in 1962 with a column entitled “Pretesti e appunti” (“Pretexts and notes”), which appeared in every issue of the magazine until 1970. In the pages that the magazine dedicated to the late director, he outlined the nature of their work together: “not art as a topic at the service of the company’s printed communication and advertising interests, nor the exploitation of a platform for futile artistic digressions”, but a real partnership freely entered into by two intellectuals who were convinced of the importance of art for social and civil progress.
Franco Russoli was born in Florence on 9 July 1923. After graduating in the history of art and initial work experiences in Tuscany, he moved to Milan in 1950. Here he began working with Fernanda Wittgens, the superintendent of monuments and galleries in Lombardy, as well as the first female director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, at a time of exceptional dynamism in Milanese culture. Commemorating Russoli on the Pinacoteca di Brera website, Paolo Martelli writes that “it could be said that Wittgens and Russoli were for art what Grassi and Strehler were for the theatre. Italy needed to be salvaged from 25 years of isolation.” It was thanks to them that, in 1951, the heavily bombed Poldi Pezzoli Museum reopened, and the great exhibition on Pablo Picasso at the Palazzo Reale, the most important on the artist ever held in Europe, was curated by Russoli himself. It was in these years of reconstruction and rebirth of culture in Milan that, on the initiative of the poet-engineer Leonardo Sinisgalli, the Pirelli magazine experience came about, creating a place of encounter between scientific and humanistic culture. Russoli and the magazine crossed paths a few years later. In 1957, when Russoli took over from Wittgens as the director of Brera – a position he held until his death – Arrigo Castellani became editor-in-chief of the bimonthly published by Pirelli. With his “confidence in the social function of free enterprise that is conscious of its Enlightenment duties”, the new director had a precise programme to promote art in the pages of the magazine. To achieve this, he turned to Russoli, whom he had met during an auction evening. It was 1962 and Castellani decided to give the art historian and critic a regular column in the magazine: “a sort of notebook or notes on topics that he will be completely free to choose”, he wrote to Vittorio Sereni, then head of the Press Office at Pirelli, in a letter now in the poet’s archive. And thus “Pretexts and notes” came into being, with short articles in the form of features on various aspects of art, and digressions that Russoli wanted as the “pretext and starting point for introducing and highlighting discussions on issues of civil scope”. In these years of reflection on the civil function of art and on the role of museums as centres of cultural formation and social integration, the column for Pirelli magazine was one of the many ways in which Russoli helped disseminate artistic culture. “A means” – he wrote, when talking about his column – “to revive […] the notion of a duty and a right to cultural ‘service’, in its most concrete and dedicated forms. […] The transition from articles on international contemporary art, with its great exponents and its biennials and exhibitions, to calls for the creation of living museums of modern art in Italy, had to come about in a natural manner”.
Russoli’s contribution extended well beyond the column, for in his more general partnership with Arrigo Castellani and Vittorio Sereni, he helped bring other aspects of art to Pirelli magazine. This included the wonderful experience of “artists in the factory”, but also the publication of previously unexhibited works by artists, often accompanied by the text of a writer. Russoli writes in the commemoration of Castellani in 1969: “I had the opportunity to attend many meetings between Arrigo and the artists: Giacometti, Guttuso, Ajmone, Carmassi, Fontana, Sambonet, Cascella, Sassu, Biasion, Treccani, Murabito, Cazzaniga, Manzi, Chighine, Sutherland, Cagli and others […] many of them worked with his magazine”. Russoli had curated the catalogue of the first solo exhibition by the painter Arturo Carmassi in 1954 and the first monograph in 1960: after the photo service by Ugo Mulas on the Venice Biennale in 1962, where Carmassi exhibited his sculptures, the painter published a series of plates with an introduction by Russoli in issue number 5-6 of 1966. In 1968, also the Mulas’s photo service on Lucio Fontana was accompanied by a article written by Russoli. Another noteworthy article, also published in 1966, was an exposé entitled “In trecento contro i draghi“ (“300 Against the Dragons”) in favour of the “Italia da salvare” campaign promoted by Italia Nostra for the protection of Italy’s artistic and scenic heritage. Russoli’s column ended in 1970, shortly before the magazine closed down in 1972. Russoli continued working to promote art in the 1970s with publications, articles and television broadcasts. He also remained committed to the dream of a “Grande Brera” and of protecting Italy’s artistic heritage, taking part in the foundation of FAI, in 1975, together with Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi, Renato Bazzoni, and Alberto Predieri.
An important legacy to remember – and celebrate – on the centenary of his birth.