{"id":127232,"date":"2026-09-03T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/?p=127232"},"modified":"2026-09-03T23:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:49:07","slug":"anselmo-bucci-mart-rovereto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/anselmo-bucci-mart-rovereto\/","title":{"rendered":"Anselmo Bucci at the Mart in Rovereto"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would like to begin this article on the remarkable exhibition Anselmo Bucci. The Twentieth Century Between Italy and Europe<\/em> with two of Bucci\u2019s own remarks. They appear along the exhibition route and immediately reveal something of his personality:<\/p>\n

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\u201cChrist began his career between the donkey and the ox; I hope to end mine in much the same way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With just a few words, Bucci opens a window onto his very personal world. It is a world that can be beautiful and sublime, yet crossed by deep currents of melancholy.<\/p>\n

There is nature in its purest form. There are elegant women whose penetrating gaze seems to allow no escape.<\/p>\n

There is also an ideal world governed by natural harmony. Beside it stands a real world that changes almost monstrously beneath the artist\u2019s balcony.<\/p>\n

Above all, however, there is the world of his beloved animals. In Bucci\u2019s eyes, they know nothing of sin and simply know how to love.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTired of searching in vain for a contemporary who was neither a genius nor a hero, I took refuge among the beasts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Mart in Rovereto presents the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to Anselmo Bucci. Curated by Beatrice Avanzi and Luca Baroni, it runs from 28 March to 27 September 2026. More than 150 works reconstruct the career, life and cultural relationships of this singular artist. Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and archival material reveal a painter who was also an exceptional printmaker, draughtsman and writer.<\/p>\n

Anselmo Bucci, painter and intellectual of the twentieth century<\/h2>\n

Anselmo Bucci was born in Fossombrone, in the Marche, in 1887 and died in Monza in 1955.<\/p>\n

Active between Paris and Milan, he became one of the most cultivated and independent figures of twentieth-century Italian art. He was among the founders of the Novecento Italiano<\/strong> and was responsible for giving the group its name. Yet he never allowed a movement to define the limits of his work.<\/p>\n

His artistic language remained open, eclectic and unmistakably personal. Alongside the solid construction and modern classicism associated with the Novecento Italiano, he developed Post-Impressionist atmospheres, often painted en plein air<\/em>. His compositions also reveal an unusual interest in daring viewpoints and perspectives.<\/p>\n

The enduring bond with his native land<\/h2>\n

Bucci sometimes signed himself \u201cBucci da Fossombrone\u201d<\/strong>, underlining his profound attachment to his birthplace.<\/p>\n

The Marche remained a landscape of memory, family ties and roots throughout his life. Even during his most cosmopolitan years, he never entirely abandoned that emotional geography.<\/p>\n

This intimate connection emerges in L\u2019Autunno<\/em>, one of the major paintings of his early Parisian period. Nature is not simply a setting. It becomes a place of memory and inner reflection.<\/p>\n

The Paris years: training and international recognition<\/h2>\n

Anselmo Bucci arrived in Paris in November 1906 with his friends Mario Buggelli and Leonardo Dudreville.<\/p>\n

He later recalled their arrival with characteristic irony:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAltogether, we were fifty-eight years old, with three suitcases, one address and twelve francs between us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bucci lived in Paris for eight years. Even after returning to Italy, however, he maintained a studio and a close network of friendships there until the mid-1930s.<\/p>\n

Paris became the city of his artistic maturation and early recognition.<\/p>\n

During his first years he frequented the bohemian environment of La Ruche<\/strong> in Montparnasse. There he encountered artists including Gino Severini, Amedeo Modigliani, Lorenzo Viani, Pablo Picasso and Maurice Utrillo.<\/p>\n

He supported himself by retouching photographs, producing portraits and working intensively as a printmaker.<\/p>\n

Among his finest achievements from these years is the series of drypoints Paris qui bouge<\/em>. In these works Bucci explored streets, caf\u00e9s, squares, rooftops and the restless movement of modern Paris.<\/p>\n

\"Anselmo
Juliette puntasecca a colori su zinco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recurring presence in his early work was Juliette Mar\u00e9<\/strong>, his companion and muse. Bucci portrayed her in elegant dresses and in costumes inspired by Japanese fashion.<\/p>\n

Between 1909 and 1914 he also travelled extensively. His journeys took him to southern France, Sardinia, Brittany and Algeria. New landscapes, colours and qualities of light entered his artistic vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Graphic art and the mastery of drypoint<\/h2>\n

One of the most significant sections of the Mart exhibition is devoted to Bucci\u2019s graphic work.<\/p>\n

An inventory compiled by the artist in 1936 recorded 6,910 drawings and 417 engraved plates<\/strong>. These figures alone reveal the extraordinary intensity of his work on paper.<\/p>\n

Drypoint was not a secondary activity for Bucci. It was one of the principal languages through which he observed modern life.<\/p>\n

His prints combine technical precision with speed of perception. Streets, crowds, animals and fleeting gestures become fragments of a world caught in motion.<\/p>\n

Cities seen from above<\/h2>\n

The elevated viewpoint is one of the most recognisable features of Bucci\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

He often chose homes and studios on upper floors. From windows, balconies and terraces he observed the city and its continuous transformations.<\/p>\n

In Tetti di Parigi<\/em>, snow and mist dissolve the urban structure. The city becomes an interior landscape dominated by grey, silent tonalities.<\/p>\n

After his return to Italy, the rapid development of Milan offered Bucci a new field of observation.<\/p>\n

From the balcony of his studio in Via Jean Jaur\u00e8s, overlooking the railway tracks near the Central Station, he witnessed countryside gradually being transformed into city.<\/p>\n

The urban landscape therefore became more than a subject. It provided a stage on which Bucci could explore the tensions and dramas of contemporary life.<\/p>\n

One of the most significant works in this context is Il lampo<\/em>. The painting was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1922. A sudden flash interrupts the apparent calm of the Milanese outskirts, frightening the horses and sending passers-by towards shelter.<\/p>\n

The remarkable portraits of Anselmo Bucci<\/h2>\n

Bucci\u2019s interest in portraiture can be traced back to his childhood years in Este.<\/p>\n

In Paris, portraiture also helped him establish important professional relationships. After his return to Italy, it became an important point of contact with Milanese society.<\/p>\n

The monumental Ritratto di signora in blu<\/em> revisits the nineteenth-century tradition of the full-length seated portrait. Elsewhere, Bucci adopted a frontal half-length format closer to contemporary photography and postcards.<\/p>\n