AROLDO BONZAGNI
- (Cento - BO 1887 –
Milano 1918 )
Italian painter and draughtsman.
In 1906 he moved to Milan with a
scholarship and enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
in Milan. He soon joined the ranks of such Milanese avant-garde
artists as Carlo Carr?, Umberto Boccioni and Luigi Russolo,
whose admiration for Gaetano Previati he shared. Through the
influence of the latter and through Boccioni he became familiar
with modernism. In 1910 he signed the Futurist Manifesto and
took part in the evening performances in which the Futurists
declaimed their manifestos. However, he soon disassociated
himself from the movement and turned his attention to the
depiction of reality, which he interpreted and portrayed with a
feeling of irony and caricature (e.g. Exit from La Scala, 1910;
Cento, Gal. A. Mod. Aroldo Bonzagni). His numerous drawings were
influenced by the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jean-Louis
Forain and Th?ophile-Alexandre Steinlen, and above all by the
style of the Munich and Vienna Secessions, known in Italy
through the Venice Biennales of the early 1900s. In 1910-11 he
created decorations for the Villa S Donnino (now Villa Leonardi)
at San Donnino della Nizzola near Modena. In 1912, having
participated in the Mostra della pittura e della scultura
rifiutata organized by Boccioni at the Palazzo Cova, Milan, he
exhibited at the Venice Biennale. In 1913 he participated in the
Mostra nazionale della caricatura in Bergamo, leaving for
Argentina the following year, after again exhibiting at the
Venice Biennale. In Buenos Aires he painted some frescoes in the
race-track (destr.) and worked for the humorous periodical El
Zorro. After returning to Milan, he set up a show in 1915 in the
Palazzo delle Aste. In his work he increasingly depicted the
poorest sectors of society (e.g. Beggars, 1916-17; Milan, Gal.
A. Mod).