Milano. The dawn of Reconstruction. The economic boom is yet to come. But the moral capital is in a hurry: Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler wash the blood stains and transform the building where the Nazi-fascists tortured the resisters in the Piccolo Teatro; Arturo Toscanini conducts the first concert in the Scala restored after the bombings; socialist mayors bring together big industry and social justice.
In Rome politics rules, but even in Rome the artistic scene is reborn, animated by a great woman: Palma Bucarelliat the helm of the National Gallery of Modern Art. In Milan there is another world-class institution, Brera, led by another great woman: Fernanda Wittgens.
Both Palma and Fernanda saved the masterpieces entrusted to them during the war. Both fought in the Resistance, Wittgens was also in prison for saving the Jews. Yet, they challenge each other.
Aldo Cazzullo (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
The dispute over Picasso
Who among them will organize Picasso’s first major Italian exhibition? Who will be able to bring the works of the artist of the century, the political artist par excellence, banned by fascism? Who will show Italians for the first time the painting symbolizing the horror of war, Guernica?
Rachele Ferrario rebuilds The dispute over Picasso in a precious essay published by La Tartarugaone of the brands where Elisabetta Sgarbi and her team work, made up mainly of women, starting with Claudia Durastanti.
Rachele Ferrario wrote “The dispute over Picasso. Fernanda Wittgens and Palma Bucarelli” (The Turtle, 17.10 euros)
Ferrario is the biographer of Palma Bucarelli, Margherita Sarfatti, Umberto Boccioni. He has a particular talent for finding papers, photographs and letters in archives. Thanks to years of research, it re-proposes the “silent assonance” but also the rivalry between Palma and Fernanda.
Which will perhaps end in a draw. Because in the end there will be two exhibitions, both in 1953. The first is that of Rome. But it will also be there in Milan Guernica. And the scene of the Royal Palace, with the Hall of Caryatids which today as then bears the signs of bombing, is the most suitable for valorising Picasso’s genius.
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All articles by Aldo Cazzullo.
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