Italy's Most Mechanical City1 Bruno Munari Was Born in Milan
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Bruno Munari and the invention of modern graphic design in Italy, 1928 - 1945 Colizzi, A. Citation Colizzi, A. (2011, April 19). Bruno Munari and the invention of modern graphic design in Italy, 1928 - 1945. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17647 Version: Corrected Publisher’s Version Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral License: thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17647 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). 1 Italy’s most mechanical city Upbringing and debut Italy Under Giolitti (1896–1915) 14 Badia Polesine (1913–1924) 16 13 Upbringing 18 Milan 21 Studio Mauzan-Morzenti 23 Animation 24 Bruno Munari was born in Milan on the morning of 24 October 1907 to Pia Cavicchioni and Enrico Munari, who had both re- cently immigrated to the large industrial city in Lombardy from the Veneto, a rural region in north-eastern Italy. His father was a waiter at the Caffè Gambrinus,2 a popular venue among the political and artistic elite, located in the central Galleria Vitto- rio Emanuele II, near the Duomo and the Teatro Alla Scala. His mother looked after him and helped the family make a living with her needlework skills. Munari’s typical sense of humour can be seen in one of the many autobiographical profiles he wrote over the course of his life, in which he describes his pro- letarian background with graceful irony: ‘All of a sudden, with- out warning from anyone, there I was, completely naked, in the middle of Milan, on the morning of 24 October 1907. My father had connections with some of the city’s most noteworthy peo- ple, as he was a waiter at the Caffè Gambrinus. My mother put on airs, embroidering fans.’3 1 . From the Futurist changed its name to Caffè manifesto L’arte meccanica Grand’Italia (Paolo Colussi, (Mechanical Art), 1922. Cronologia di Milano dal 1881 2 . The Caffè Gambri- al 1890, http://www.storia- nus opened in 1882, in the dimilano.it, , last accessed wing of the Galleria that 9 April 2009). opens onto piazza Scala 3 . Quoted in Le persone (in the spot of the former che hanno fatto grande Mila- Caffè Gnocchi), and in 1914 no, 1983: 3. Italy’s most mechanical city Italy Under Giolitti (1896–1915) and practices,8 caused the city’s population The Munari family’s arrival in Milan in the to double in just twenty years.9 early years of the century and the arrival of On a political level, at the end of a their firstborn son, Bruno, took place with- long period of stasis in the parliamentary in a rather particular political and, conse- regime, and lacking any real alternatives 14 quently, social context—above all with re- to the historic Right and Left—with the gard to the daily life of contemporary Ital- former determined by the landholders’ and ians. The so-called Giolittian era heralded banks’ interests, and the latter determined the twentieth-century’s first decade in a by middle-class and industrial concerns— climate of moderate liberal reform that, the strong fin-de-siècle social and political despite its contradictions, marked a signifi- tensions, heightened by both the economic cant evolution in the country’s productive recession and the government’s repressive and social relationships as Italy, in its own politics, culminated in the assassination of way, moved toward modernisation.4 King Umberto I at the hand of an anarchist The country was exiting a phase of in 1900.10 As colonial expansionism failed complex, difficult transition. Unified as and the administration of Francesco Crispi recently as 1861, which was relatively late brought the government ever closer to compared to other European nations, outright authoritarianism,11 the following Italy was still a young, poor nation, and remained behind its neighbours on an 4 . For a more complete (thanks to innovative farm- overview of the Giolittian ing mechanics) (industriali- economic and political level; above all, it era, see Procacci 1975²: sation 1997: 25–6). 411–80; Carocci 1961 (in 7 . Bigatti 1997: 25. was still separated by major regional dis- particular for political de- 8 . The wave of agricul- parities. Beginning in the 1880s, despite velopments); Castronovo tural modernisation that 1995: 107–97 (on the indus- swept across northern the generally poor state of the economy trial boom); and the thor- Italy in the latter half of the and the serious agricultural crisis that had ough summary in Aquarone nineteenth century ben- 1988. efited from new machinery, struck Europe, Italy had to transition from 5 . Thanks to a type of chemical fertilisers, new capitalist development sim- crops and crop rotations. a primarily agricultural country to an at ilar to the Prussian model The modes of produc- least partially industrial one.5 Lombardy of economic transforma- tion also changed radi- tion through government cally, shifting toward more in particular was assuming an increasingly intervention (protection- capitalist management, not industrial profile, and Milan reinforced its ist policies, a mixed credit without government in- system, and public works tervention (through land role as ‘the kingdom’s economic and moral commissions), this first reclamation and the estab- 6 phase of industrialisation— lishment of trade schools capital’ —as proven by the 1881 Esposizione still based primarily on and centres for agricultural nazionale held in Milan, which was Italy’s familial entrepreneurship research). Cf. Castronovo 7 and small-scale produc- 1995: 115–20. first national exhibition —drawing a signif- tion—mainly involved the 9 . 1901 census (com- icant percentage of the masses emigrating steel, mechanical, electrical, pared to the 1880 census), and textile sectors, con- in Castronovo 1995: 111. from the countryside. Urban drift as a re- centrated primarily in the 10 . Notably the insur- so-called industrial triangle rection of Sicily’s Fasci dei sult of an increasing demand for industrial between Milan, Turin, and lavoratori (a labour or- labour, as well as the rural exodus triggered Genoa (Procacci 1975²: 331– ganisation movement, lit- 2; Castronovo 1995: 160–5; erally ‘bundle of workers’) by innovations in agricultural equipment Carocci 1961: 10–1). in 1893–94, and the Bava 6 . Procacci 1975²: 363. Beccaris massacre in Milan With respect to the re- in 1898 (cf. Procacci 1975²: gion’s traditional sectors 436–7, 445–6). of production, Milan’s new 11 . Francesco Crispi’s production centre was dis- rule was particularly re- tinguished by strong growth actionary on the inte- in the steel and mechani- rior front (1887–91 and cal divisions, which were 1993–95, periods in which linked to the formation of Italy launched campaigns economic infrastructure for its own ‘place in the (transportation, electricity, sun’ in East Africa), as was and precision mechanics) the government of Luigi and the agricultural revolu- Pelloux (1898–1900). King tion that was well underway Umberto I was assassinated Bruno Munari and the invention of modern graphic design in Italy, 1928–1945 political period, lead by Giovanni Giolitti artisans) and the emerging middle class (1901–1914), began under signs of a more (public and private clerks, teachers), as moderate reformism and a progressive modernisation of the nation’s government, by an anarchist to avenge population nationwide— 14 which allowed for two major steps forward the protesters who had died twice that of industry—the 15 during the violent repres- aforementioned industrial in the country’s civil and social evolution: sion of the May 1898 upris- triangle was a notewor- ings in Milan: the massacre thy exception, employing on the one hand it encouraged industriali- was instigated by Gen- 40% of the population in sation, and on the other hand, it opened eral Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, Lombardy and Liguria, and upon whom the Savoy sov- 31% in Piemonte (Procacci politics up to the agricultural and indus- ereign bestowed the highest 1975²: 471; Aquarone 1988: trial working class, organised in the social- honours. 397). To compare this situ- 12 . Cf. Aquarone 1988: ation with other European ist and catholic movements, which up un- 37–60. nations, data on foreign 13 . Among the reforms commerce from 1890–1907 til then had been marginal political forces enacted under Giolitti over show an annual growth of largely excluded from the mainstream slightly more than a decade, 118% in Italy, with respect 12 one of the most important to England’s 55% and Ger- political–institutional system. A series of was the recovery of govern- many’s 92% (Croce 1963: structural reforms and investments,13 the ment finances, which were 228; see also Aquarone rebalanced by 1906. The 1988: 289–301; Castronovo expansion of electoral suffrage,14 as well primary investments went 1995: 160–5). to infrastructure (nation- 16 . At the beginning as economic policies aimed at increasing alisation of the railways, of the century, Italians’ the spending power of the lower classes, all the launch of major public wages were among the low- works projects, reorganisa- est in Europe, thanks also took place in the context of increasingly tion of the postal service, to extensive reliance on rapid economic development in the agri- and municipalisation of women and child labourers various services), but other (Procacci 1975²: 459–60; cultural and industrial/financial sectors, sectors also benefited, in- Castronovo 1995: 173–4). cluding education and so- Emigration has been a both of which were fostered by the state’s cial services (new laws on significant phenomenon protectionist politics.15 Yet despite the ben- health care, women’s and throughout recent Ital- children’s labour laws, and ian history: it was a safety efit of such protected conditions, Italy’s the first pension plans).