Bruno Cassinari was born in Piacenza in 1912. A pupil at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Aldo Carpi (1934–1938), his art quickly took on a political dimension as he vehemently sought to confront the Fascist regime of his native Italy. But he was also a sympathetic student of the 20th century avant-garde, Fauvism, expressionism and above all cubism.
His intellectual opposition manifested itself through his association with the Corrente Group, which he joined in 1939. This collective, which also numbered Renato Guttuso, Emilio Vedova, Renato Birolli, Ennio Morlotti, Ernesto Treccani and Giuseppe Migneco within its ranks, stood behind Picasso’s Guernica as the symbol and aesthetic through which to fight barbarism and tyranny through artistic expression. He would go on to win the Littoriali award that same year. In 1941, with the help and support of Elio Vittorini, Cassinari organised his first solo exhibition, which featured a portrait of Rosa Birolli (Portrait of Rosetta), a winner of the Bergamo Prize.
The following decade was characterised by international aspirations and collaborations. Like most of his modern masters – Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh or Modigliani – Cassinari was seduced by the magnetic appeal of France. And yet, unlike his contemporaries, he opted not for Paris as his destination but Antibes, where he lived between 1949 and 1952. Closer to his Mediterranean sensitivities, the French coast proved to be a rich source of inspiration and opportunity. He met contemporary masters such as Chagall, Matisse, Braque and Picasso, who personally invited him to exhibit his work at the museum in Antibes.
His international period was marked by countless shows and participation in various biennales. Cassinari branched out to the American continent with various exhibitions from 1949 onwards, including Twentieth-Century Italian Art at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. 1950 saw him take part in the Venice Biennale for the first time, with five paintings on display. He would be featured again in 1952 (winning the Grand Prize of Italian Painting), 1956, 1960, 1962 and 1964. In 1951 he ventured to Scandinavia with the exhibition Italian Artists of Today, which encompassed Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo and Copenhagen. The same year, he took part in the first edition of the Painters of Today France-Italy exhibition and won the Taranto prize for painting.
Throughout the decade, Cassinari became synonymous with Italian contemporary art and a regular feature of retrospective or introductory exhibitions for this new generation of Italian artists. Some notable examples include an exhibition of Italian contemporary art organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1956, Italian Art of the 20th Century in various museums in Australia, Modern Italian Art, which featured in London, Plymouth and Birmingham in the UK in 1956, Painting in Post-War Italy 1945–1957, held at Columbia University in New York from 1957, Moderne Italiaanse Kunst in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, Italian Paintings of Today in London and Peintres d’aujourd’hui France-Italie in Paris (all 1960). Cassinari’s spirit of resistance is also celebrated at various exhibitions including Post-war II: Italian painting from ‘45 to ‘55 at Estense Castle in Ferrara, or Art and Resistance in Europe at the Galleria Civica in Bologna and Turin (1965).
Retrospectives began to flourish in the mid-1960s. In 1965 the Bergamini Gallery in Milan exhibited a large selection of oil paintings, sculptures and watercolours. Busto Arsizio Art Gallery dedicated an anthology to Cassinari in 1981, categorising his oil paintings, drawings, sculptures and lithographs. His home town followed suit two years later, inaugurating a retrospective of 150 pieces curated by Gian Alberto Dell’Acqua and Giovanni Anzani at Palazzo Farnese.
Cassinari died in his studio in Milan in 1992, but numerous posthumous exhibitions have continued to celebrate and cherish his work.
