Where and when
Wednesday 14 December, 5.30pm
Screening of unpublished scenes from the documentary Firenze ’66 – Dopo l’alluvione by Enrico Pacciani
Rodolfo Ceccotti dialogue with Simone Guaita
In collaboration with Fondazione Il Bisonte
Ragghianti’s proposal to create, in the aftermath of the flood, an innovative museum of contemporary arts, also open to design, did not remain an isolated case. Like him, many Italian and foreign artists and artisans have tried to open new contemporary paths to the Florentine artistic tradition. Il Bisonte was founded in 1959 in Via Ricasoli, Florence. The founder, Maria Luigia Guaita, who came from publishing and journalism, had come to know and appreciate the technique of lithography in Scotland, in the studio of a friend painter. She was joined in this venture by a group of intellectuals including Giorgio Luti (historian of Italian literature), Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti (art historian), Enrico Vallecchi (publisher), Odoardo Strigelli. Maria Luigia Guaita wanted to spread knowledge of the original graphic art works in opposition to the rampant claim of reproductions devoid of any value.
The first artists invited to Il Bisonte were the Informali – Carmassi, Moreni, Scanavino, Giò Pomodoro – followed a short distance by the major representatives of the so-called “generation of the Ten“: Soffici, Severini, Carrà, Magnelli. The printing house, for many years, will be a place of meetings, a web of different presences and experiences, always of great value. Among the artists who collaborated on several occasions: Boschi, Capocchini, Caruso, Clerici, Cremonini, Maccari, Mattioli.
The flood that engulfed Florence in November 1966 also flooded the new headquarters of the Stamperia, just inaugurated in San Niccolò; but the disaster, which at the time seemed irreparable, aroused new vigour. The resumption of activity, at a time when the attention of the world was focused on the disaster-stricken city, for Il Bisonte coincided with the opening of international horizons. It was at this juncture that Henry Moore began a collaboration destined to last, followed by others such as Chadwick, Calder, Sutherland, Matta, Lipchitz, Tamayo, Arroyo.
The meeting will be an opportunity to retrace the intellectual association between Maria Luigia Guaita and Ragghianti and to mention the presence of international artists in Florence.