HANDICRAFT AS A FINE ART IN ITALY
Bruno Munari [Designer], Carlo Lodovico Ragghianti [Introduction]
New York: Handicraft Development Inc., and CADMA Florence, 1948. First edition. 16mo. Die-cut corrugated yapped paper wrappers. [84] pp. Illustrated profiles of 37 Italian artists with black and white work samples. Fragile wrappers with mild wear including a couple of tiny nicks and scratches and a few compressed fluted areas around the die cuts. Mild foxing early and late, but a very good copy of this rare and fragile publication.
4.875 x 6.75-inch softcover booklet with elaborate wrappers and 84 pages illustrated in black and white. Produced for a show of the same name at the House of Italian Handicraft, New York, in 1948. Images include ceramics, furniture, silverware, textiles and an abstract sculpture by Ettore Sot – sas Jr [sic].
Includes short biographies, portraits and single work samples by Afro, Mirko Basaldella, Enrico Bordoni, Luigi Broggini, Massimo Campigli, Pietro Cascella, Felice Casorati, Sandro Cherchi, Fabrizio Clerici, Pietro Consagra, Filippo de Pisis, Agenore Fabbri, Lucio Fontana, Piero Fornasetti, Renato Gregorini, Lorenzo Guerrini, Renato Guttuso, Leoncillo Leonardo, Carlo Levi, Paola Levi Montalcini, Marino Marini, Fausto Melotti, Giovanni Michelucci, Giorgio Morandi, Adriana Pincherle, Anita Pittoni, Armando Pizzinato, Emanuele Rambaldi, Giuseppe Santomaso, Aligi Sassu, Carlo Sbisà, Maria Signorelli, Ettore Sottsass Jr., Enrico Steiner, Nino Ernesto Strada, Giulio Turcato, and Gianni Vagnetti.
In his introduction Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, CADMA’s chairman, described the exhibition’s aim as ‘to perfect the quality of the Italian handicrafts by means of collaboration between artists and craftsmen.’ He described this ‘experiment’ as ‘part of a wider plan of action devoted to the revival and development of Italian handicrafts and […] to the harmonising of Italian handicraft production with foreign and especially American, requirements.’
The catalog, designed by Bruno Munari, reveals the unevenness of this collaboration — or at least its representation. Although no paintings were included in the exhibition, the cut-out corrugated cardboard cover depicts the creative work of the artist rather than artisan: a painter at his easel rather than a potter at his wheel. This is continued inside: the names and profiles for the thirty six artists and one architect are included but no details of the makers themselves are given – these are Sabatino’s anonymous ‘ghosts of the profession’ mentioned in the introduction.
“Handicrafts as a Fine Art in Italy” was arguably one of the first exhibitions to present craft as art in post-war America. It preceded the larger MoMA exhibition “XX Century Italian Art” from 1949, which included terracotta and ceramic works and which Lisa Hockemeyer has argued “demonstrates the curators’ acceptance of ceramic as a sculptural medium.” Both exhibitions predated the acceptance of clay for artistic expression in the American context – as seen in the New York art world’s resistance to Peter Voulkos and his Californian cohorts. It illustrates the difference of the concept of craft and art in the Italian context: for Hockemeyer, these artists’ use of clay was a result of the breakdown of hierarchies between the fine and decorative arts that occurred in the 1930s. It also speaks of the embryonic status of the field of design, in which there was an openness to who the modernisers of Italy’s crafts would be – artists or architects.”
Bruno Munari (Milan, 1907 – 1998) was mentored by the Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti starting at the age of 18. Munari first showcased his "Useless Machines" in 1932 -- a series of Dadaist ever-moving geometrical solids suspended in the air. In 1948, Munari, along with Atanasio Soldati, Gianno Monet and Gillo Dorfles formed the MAC Movement [Movimento Arte Concreta] "to develop abstract painting and sculpture with no links whatsoever to the outside world." During this time, Munari continued creating his Convex-Concave sculptures and experimented with color, space, movement, form and background in his Negative-Positive works. The Italian Design Industry's interest in Munari led him to create the Pigomma Company's toy monkey, the Danese melamine cube ashtray and numerous other industrial design and illustrative works. After a career of over seventy years, Munari gained the title of "founding father of Italian design." Picasso described him as "the new Leonardo.”
Munari, a self-taught man, became more than a graphic designer. He was an industrial designer, architect, writer, philosopher and educator. In the 20’s he became involved in the Futurist movement. He worked as a photographer and graphic designer for Pirelli, Cinzano, IBM and Olivetti. After WW2, he started to work as an industrial and interior designer. He challenged all conventions and stereo types, he pulled down barriers between architecture and design with his modest creativity and ingeniousness. Munari created experimental travel sculptures that could collapse and put into a suitcase, simple exquisite lamps, animated children’s books, unreadable books (Libri illegibili), useless machines and so many other beautiful artefacts. He wrote many books, and thanks to Edizione Corraini, many of those have been reprinted. He was awarded the Compasso ‘Oro, Milano in 1954, 1955 and 1979. His advice: “Take life as seriously as a game.”