Ernesto Treccani (Milan, 26 August 1920 â Milan, 27 November 2009) was a visual artist, writer and political activist.
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.<br /> 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 PaveseâÂÂs La luna e i falò (1962âÂÂ63), the cycle of works Da Melissa a Valenza (1964âÂÂ65), 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 âÂÂnomadicâ 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 dellâÂÂarte and Un poco di fiele: poesie e disegni (1940âÂÂ1970).
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.
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, lâÂÂepica, 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.
Puà ¡kin Museum, Moscow, Russia<br /> Museo del Novecento, Milano, Italy <br /> Museo della Permanente, Milano, Italy<br /> Studio Treccani, Fondazione Corrente, Milano, Italy<br /> Polo Museale Santa Chiara, San Gimignano, Italy<br /> MAGA, Museo d'arte di Gallarate, Gallarate (VA), Italy<br /> Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy<br /> Fondazione Cesare Pavese, Santo Stefano Belbo, CN, Italy<br /> Galleria civica di arte contemporanea, Copparo, FE, Italy<br /> Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Latina, RM, Italy<br /> Museo civico, Montecarotto, AN, Italy<br /> MdAO, Museo d'arte di Avellino, Italy<br /> Museo d'arte sacra, San Gabriele di Isola del Gran Sasso d'Italia, Italy<br /> Museo Civico di Villa Groppallo, Vado Ligure, Italy<br /> Museo Civico della Paleontologia, Lizzano, Italy
Vittorio Fagone, Corrente, reprint gennaio 1938-maggio 1940, La nuova foglio, Pollenza, 1978<br /> Marco Valsecchi, Gli artisti di Corrente, Edizioni di Comunità, Milano 1963<br /> Mario De Micheli, Ernesto Treccani, Edizioni del Milione, Milano 1962/> Duilio Morosini, Ernesto Treccani, Milano, Edizioni del Milione, 1949<br /> John Berger, Realist Painters of La Colonna, The Leicester Galleries, London, 1956<br /> First American Exhibition of Paintings by Ernesto Treccani, John Heller Gallery, New York, 1957<br /> Raffaele De Grada, Mostra antologica di Ernesto Treccani, Casa Municipale della Cultura, Livorno, 1958<br /> Retrospective exhibition of Ernesto Treccani. 150 paintings, Puà ¡kin Museum, Moscow, 1976<br /> Retrospective exhibition of Ernesto Treccani. 150 paintings, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 1976<br /> Treccani. Peintures 1975-79, Galerie Béneézit, Paris, 1979<br /> Ernesto Treccani. Malerei. Graphik. Plastik, Ausstellung der Neunen Berliner Galerie im Alten Museum, Berlin, 1982<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Galleria Forni, Amsterdam, 1982<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Real Circulo Artistico Don Quijote de la Mancha, Barcelona, 1987<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Galerie Moderne Italienische Kunst, Stuttgart, 1986<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Paço Des Artes, São Paulo, 1988<br /> Antonio Negri, Studio Museo Treccani, Edizioni del Leone, Venice, 1986<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Arte per amore. Scritti e pagine di diario, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1978<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Il segreto dell'arte, Amadeus, Maser, 1987<br /> Ernesto Treccani, Un poco di fiele : poesie e disegni (1940-1970), Feltrinelli, Milan, 1970<br /> Vittorio Fagone, Lamberto Vitali, Ernesto Treccani, Edizioni del Milione, Milan, 1970<br /> Antonio Negri, Ernesto Treccani: Mostra antologica, Fabbri editore, Milan, 1989<br /> Marina Pizziolo, Ernesto Treccani e il movimento di Corrente, Skira, Milan, 2003<br /> Giorgio Seveso, Silvio Riolfo Marengo, Energia, luci e colori. Le vetrate di Ernesto Treccani, Italian Institute of Culture, Budapest and Prague, 2006<br /> Raffaele De Grada, Ernesto Treccani. Le mutazioni del realismo, opere inedite 2003-2006, Il Fortino, Forte dei Marmi, 2006<br /> Marina Pizziolo, Corrente, le parole della vita. Opere 1930-1945, Skira, Milan, 2008<br /> Giorgio Seveso, Ernesto Treccani, Arte per amore. Dalle poetiche del realismo alla poesia della realtà, Grafo Edizioni, Montichiari, 2009<br /> Giorgio Seveso (a cura di), Le parole e la pittura. Ernesto Treccani incontra la poesia, lâÂÂepica, il romanzo, catalogo della mostra, Pinacoteca Civica di Savona, 2011<br /> Maddalena Muzio Treccani, Silvio Riolfo Marengo, Giorgio Seveso, La materia e la luce. Vetri, ceramiche e smalti di Ernesto Treccani, Fondazione Corrente, Milan, 2013