MODERNIDADE LATINA Os Italianos e os Centros do Modernismo Latino-americano Sarfatti and Venturi, Two Italian Art Critics in the Threads of Modern Argentinian Art Cristina Rossi Introduction Margherita Sarfatti and Lionello Venturi were two Italian critics who had an important role in the Argentinian art context by mid-20th Century. Venturi was only two years younger than Sarfatti and both died in 1961. In Italy, both of them promoted groups of modern artists, even though their aesthetic poetics were divergent, such as their opinions towards the official Mussolini´s politics. Our job will seek to redraw their action within the tension of the artistic field regarding the notion proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, i.e., taking into consider- ation the complex structure as a system of relations in a permanent state of dispute1. However, this paper will not review the performance of Sarfatti and Venturi towards the cultural policies in Italy, but its proposal is to reintegrate their figures – and their aesthetical and political positions – within the interplay of forces in the Argentinian rich cultural fabric, bearing in mind the strategies that were implemented by the local agents with those who they interacted with. Sarfatti and Venturi in Mussolini´s political environment Born into a Jewish Venetian family in 1883, Margherita Grassini got married to the lawyer Cesare Sarfatti and in 1909 moved to Milan, where she started her career as an art critic. Convinced that Milan could achieve a central role in the Italian culture – together with the Jewish gallerist Lino Pesaro – in 1922 Sarfatti promoted the group Novecento. The grouping – composed by Leonardo Dudreville, Achille Funi, Anselmo Bucci, Piero Marussig, Ubaldo Oppi, Mario Sironi and Emilio Malerba – aimed to restore the Italian glories of the past to express its support to the fascist rhetoric. The study accomplished by Sileno Salvagnini points out that its mentor considered that they should always exhibit together, although in 1924 Oppi already participated in an individual form at the Biennale di Venezia, and soon other artists left 2. Even though it was a fleeting experience, it would allow Sarfatti to demonstrate 1 BOURDIEU, Pierre. Las reglas del arte. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1996. 2 SALVAGNINI, Sileno. Il sistema delle arti in Italia 1919-1943. Bologna: Minerva, 2000, p. 48. MODERNIDADE LATINA Os Italianos e os Centros do Modernismo Latino-americano that she could contribute with the political and cultural legitimation of the fascist nation, in anticipation of Mussolini himself, once right in 1925 she appreciated the contribution of the culture to organize the Congress of the Fascist Intellectuals. Anyway, in 1926 Margherita gave birth to the group again, presenting it under the name of Novecento Italiano hundreds of artists amongst who were Adolf Wildt, Arturo Martini, Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati and Massimo Campigli. The studies of Simona Urso analysed Sarfatti´s formative phase: her Jewish origin and her unresolved conflict of belonging; the dialogue with the catholic intellectual world; her closeness to Fogazzaro, the pre-rafaelism, Carlyle and Ruskin through Antonio Fradeletto, and the interest for the Risorgimento awaken by Pietro Orsi. Based on this formation, the author sustains that she linked art and beauty to the idea of morality – a morality close to the experience of pain – with a pedagogical function3. Salvagnini points out that the tragic loss of her young son Roberto in the World War l pushed her to dedicate herself completely to a militant art critique, reasons that allow her to explain her different actions along the decade. Thus, he notes that whereas her discourse at the first half of the decade appreciated the tradition moral reasons, at the second half it gradually lost the subtleties in order to adopt an emphatic way to defend “a group simulacrum”4. Nonetheless – and despite of the personal relationship she had maintained with Mussolini – in 1938 she was not successful in escaping the anti-Semitic rules and needed to exile herself. In this sense, Urso concludes that Sarfatti had early understood that the new fascist regime image required the politicization of the aesthetic, but had not understood that the same regime required an organi- zational structure that would not include a figure such as hers5. Venturi, instead, started his job as a professor at the University of Turin in 1915. He was the consultant of modern art of the industrial Riccardo Gualino´s collection and became close to the Gruppo dei Sei, composed by Carlo Levi, Gigi Chessa, Nicola Galante, Jessie Boswell, Enrico Paulucci and Francesco Menzio, whose proposal competed with the novecentismo. This group not only preferred working on color, developing a space through the chromatic relations and seeking for the synthesis between form and color, but instead of noticing the “Italian values” denied participating of some public and group activities determined by the fascism. Venturi also had not accepted to sign the loyalty record that Mussolini´s regime imposed to the university teachers and decided to emigrate to France until 1939 and soon moved to the United States. Tensions in Argentinian scene in the 1930s Sarfatti arrived in the cultural Argentinian scene during the highest moment 3 URSO, Simona. Margherita Sarfatti. Dal mito del Dux al mito americano. Venice: Marsilio, 2003, p.148. 4 SALVAGNINI, op. cit. pp. 49-55. 5 URSO, op. cit., p. 185. MODERNIDADE LATINA Os Italianos e os Centros do Modernismo Latino-americano of the Novecento Italiano dissemination abroad, where she arrived carrying more than two hundred artworks which were exhibited in the rooms of the Amigos del Arte de Buenos Aires in September 1930. Emilio Pettoruti described in his memories that Margherita asked him to be in charge of the exhibition, to which he accepted “under the condition that no one, not even her, would step on the room” until it had been set up. On the day of the vernissage, she was invited to walk through the rooms at midday, and when she found out that Mussolini´s bust by Wildt – the regime favorite sculptor – had not been included, she started to exclaim: “Il Duce, il mio Duce!”6. The exhibition had a great impact in the press although, as pointed out by Diana B. Wechsler, the local critics yielded its space to the Italian voices who neutralized her relation with the fascism. In that sense, a Buenos Aires news- paper, with massive reach such as La Prensa transcribed Arduino Colasanti´s discourse, in which he affirmed that it was a non-political artistic group which only corresponded to few fascists statements7. In any case, some headlines published on Risorgimento highlighted the matter of the fascist penetration, even though the dissemination of this newspaper was restricted, once it circu- lated preferably amongst the Italy-Argentine of non-fascist tendency8. Three years later, a left-wing cultural publication such as Contra rekindles the rumors about Sarfatti and the Duce. Even though the article had promised a complete development of an index made by Marco Galli and M. Martínez de Arroyo, during the first and the second part revealed the admiration and aspi- rations of Sarfatti towards the socialist leader Felipe Turati and soon dedicated themselves to her affair with Mussolini9. Nevertheless, they did not achieve to reveal the third deliver which included the subtitle “Sarfatti´s diabolical plan”, because the magazine stopped its publication. Later, the book was sold complete through a cupons swapping system that were in the evening paper Última Hora, under the title: M. Martínez de Arroyo, “Las amantes de Mussolini”10. In that it was attributed to Sarfatti the idea of creating the fascist party “squadre”. Even though that story would not match perfectly with the reality, the circulation of those rumors seriously compromised Sarfatti´s profile since her arrival. In fact, a Pettoruti´s letter addressed to the Uruguayan Luis E. Pombo at that time allows confirming this image, once when he asked him to help his friend, he said 6 PETTORUTI, Emilio. Un pintor ante el espejo. Buenos Aires: Solar-Hachette, 1968, p. 224. 7 WECHSLER, Diana B. “De una estética del silencio a una silenciosa declamación. Encuentros y apropiaciones de una tradición en las metrópolis del Río de la Plata” In CHIARELLI, Tadeu & WECHSLER, Diana (orgs). Cat. Exp. Novecento Sudamericano. Relazioni artistiche tra Italia e Argentina, Brasile, Uruguay. Milano: Skira, 2003 (catálogo de exposición), pp. 27-35. 8 It is interesting to bear in mind that already in July 1929, Mussolini had communicated her that he energetically disapproved the link between the Novecento with his name and the fascist artistic position. Nevertheless, Sarfatti kept her task and, in January 1932, the Duce considered necessary to notify her that she was excluded from the Commissione per le Mostre all’Estero (SALVAGNINI, op. cit., pp.54-5). 9 GALLI, Marco & MARTÍNEZ DE ARROYO, M. “Lo que no se ha dicho sobre Mussolini y el Fascio”, Contra. Revista de los francotiradores, Buenos Aires, a 1, n 2, 1933, p. 15 y a 1, n 3. 1933, p. 15. 10 MARTÍNEZ DE ARROYO M. “Las amantes de Mussolini”, Última Hora, Buenos Aires, s/d. MODERNIDADE LATINA Os Italianos e os Centros do Modernismo Latino-americano Two days ago a letter from MRS Margherita arrived. She asks me to help her. […] It seems that she fell into disgrace with the first black shirt after everything she did for him, not only her, but also her husband, the great lawyer Sarfatti. […] Unfortunately I cannot do anything. My relations with the magnate Botana are bad, in a way that not in “Critica”, or in “El Sol” […]. I have seen other people, but, due to this blessed fascism, the thing is certainly difficult. In “El Hogar” […] (I know very well) I will be told: she is the greatest fascist… Before finishing these lines I will answer back to the nice friend, MRS Margherita, and I will tell her that the lady Victoria Ocampo is a nice comrade11.