Corrente di Vita
Encyclopedia
Corrente di Vita Giovanile (Stream of youthful life), later renamed Corrente di Vita or Corrente, was an Italian
magazine founded on 1 January 1938 in Milan
by artist Ernesto Treccani.
This magazine, created by Treccani when he was seventeen years old and almost as a juvenile adventure, quickly became an important part of collective cultural action against fascist Italy
on the part of the Italian literati
. Its representatives included Raffaele De Grada
, Giansiro Ferrata, Luciano Anceschi
, Renato Birolli
, and the pure hermeticists
Carlo Bo
, Mario Luzi
, Piero Bigongiari. Corrente stimulated its public to analyse the relationships between culture and ideology, fighting with forceful coherence against enslavement to the State
.
Corrente was suppressed by the Fascist
police on 10 June 1940, but its members continued their activity as an underground group, while Benito Mussolini
pushed Italy into World War II
. They found new ways of spreading cultural information, and in the Edizioni di Corrente (the magazine's publishing house), they published the I lirici greci by Salvatore Quasimodo
, I lirici spagnoli by Carlo Bo, Frontiera by Vittorio Sereni
, Occhio quadrato by Alberto Lattuada
.
In 1938 some young painters within the Corrente movement, had opened in Milan the Bottega di Corrente (The Corrente Lab). Now, with Italy at war, these artists began producing innovative work, as an expression of cultural freedom and against the bombastic conformism of "Novecento Italiano
" and the problematic form issues of abstract art
. The Corrente painters affirmed a type of art replete with humane and moral contents, in full opposition to the fascist regime.
The Corrente painters tended decisively towards expressionist
visual forms, and made actual reference to the styles of Scuola Romana
, as well as to the great representatives of European fine arts culture, from Vincent Van Gogh
to James Ensor
and to "Fauves", from "Nabis
" to "Die Brücke
" to Chaim Soutine
and Pablo Picasso
. After two famous exhibitions held in March and December 1939, the group organised debates, meetings and "premieres" of those artists that had found their maturity within the magazine's life span. These comprised Renato Birolli
, Giuseppe Migneco, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso
, Ernesto Treccani, Aligi Sassu
, Ennio Morlotti.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
magazine founded on 1 January 1938 in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
by artist Ernesto Treccani.
This magazine, created by Treccani when he was seventeen years old and almost as a juvenile adventure, quickly became an important part of collective cultural action against fascist Italy
Fascist Italy
"Fascist Italy" refers to Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism. The Fascists led two polities:*The Kingdom of Italy , under the National Fascist Party, and,...
on the part of the Italian literati
Literati
Literati may refer to:*Intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature*The scholar-bureaucrats or literati of imperial China**Literati painting, also known as the Southern School of painting, developed by Chinese literati...
. Its representatives included Raffaele De Grada
Raffaele De Grada
Raffaele De Grada was an Italian painter.-Biography:Initially trained by his father, a decorator, in Argentina and then from 1899 in Zurich, De Grada attended the academies of Dresden and Karlsruhe over the period 1902–05. Influenced by the Swiss Secession movement, he enjoyed success as a...
, Giansiro Ferrata, Luciano Anceschi
Luciano Anceschi
Luciano Anceschi was an Italian literary critic and essayist. A pupil of Antonio Banfi, from whom he graduated in 1934, he taught at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Bologna and became part of the cultural group Corrente di Vita...
, Renato Birolli
Renato Birolli
-Biography:Birolli was born at Verona to a family of industrial workers. In 1923 he moved to Milan where he formed an avanguardist group with other artists such as Renato Guttuso, Giacomo Manzù and Aligi Sassu. In 1937 he was a member of the artistical movement called Corrente di Vita...
, and the pure hermeticists
Hermeticism (poetry)
Hermeticism in poetry, or Hermetic poetry, is a term used to describe obscure and difficult poetry, as of the Symbolist school. The name alludes to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus, supposed author of mystic doctrines composed in the Neoplatonic tradition.Hermeticism was influential in the...
Carlo Bo
Carlo Bo
Carlo Bo was a poet, literary critic, a professor and Life senator of Italy .Before World War II, in the year , he published an essay on the literary magazine Frontespizio, by the title "Letteratura come vita ", containing the theoretical-methodological fundamentals of hermetic poetry...
, Mario Luzi
Mario Luzi
- Biography:Mario Luzi was born in Castello, near Sesto Fiorentino; his parents, Ciro Luzi and Margherita Papini hailed from Samprugnano and he spent his youth in Castello, where he started his primary school...
, Piero Bigongiari. Corrente stimulated its public to analyse the relationships between culture and ideology, fighting with forceful coherence against enslavement to the State
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
.
Corrente was suppressed by the Fascist
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
police on 10 June 1940, but its members continued their activity as an underground group, while Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
pushed Italy into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They found new ways of spreading cultural information, and in the Edizioni di Corrente (the magazine's publishing house), they published the I lirici greci by Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
, I lirici spagnoli by Carlo Bo, Frontiera by Vittorio Sereni
Vittorio Sereni
Vittorio Sereni was an Italian poet, author, editor and translator of Jewish heritage. His poetry frequently addressed the themes of 20th century Italian history, such as Fascism, Italy's military defeat in World War II, and its postwar resurgence.Born at Luino, Sereni graduated from the...
, Occhio quadrato by Alberto Lattuada
Alberto Lattuada
Alberto Lattuada was an Italian film director.Lattuada was born in Milan, the son of composer Felice Lattuada...
.
In 1938 some young painters within the Corrente movement, had opened in Milan the Bottega di Corrente (The Corrente Lab). Now, with Italy at war, these artists began producing innovative work, as an expression of cultural freedom and against the bombastic conformism of "Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano
Novecento Italiano was an Italian artistic movement founded in Milan in 1922 by Anselmo Bucci , Leonardo Dudreville , Achille Funi, Gian Emilio Malerba , Piero Marussig, Ubaldo Oppi and Mario Sironi...
" and the problematic form issues of abstract art
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
. The Corrente painters affirmed a type of art replete with humane and moral contents, in full opposition to the fascist regime.
The Corrente painters tended decisively towards expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
visual forms, and made actual reference to the styles of Scuola Romana
Scuola Romana
Scuola romana or Scuola di via Cavour was a 20th century art movement defined by a group of painters within Expressionism and active in Rome between 1928 and 1945, and with a second phase in the mid-1950s.-Birth of the Movement:...
, as well as to the great representatives of European fine arts culture, from Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
to James Ensor
James Ensor
James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor was a Flemish-Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life...
and to "Fauves", from "Nabis
Nabis
Nabis was ruler of Sparta from 207 BC to 192 BC, during the years of the First and Second Macedonian Wars and the War against Nabis. After taking the throne by executing two claimants, he began rebuilding Sparta's power. During the Second Macedonian War, he sided with King Philip V of Macedon and...
" to "Die Brücke
Die Brücke
Die Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller...
" to Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. After two famous exhibitions held in March and December 1939, the group organised debates, meetings and "premieres" of those artists that had found their maturity within the magazine's life span. These comprised Renato Birolli
Renato Birolli
-Biography:Birolli was born at Verona to a family of industrial workers. In 1923 he moved to Milan where he formed an avanguardist group with other artists such as Renato Guttuso, Giacomo Manzù and Aligi Sassu. In 1937 he was a member of the artistical movement called Corrente di Vita...
, Giuseppe Migneco, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso was an Italian painter.His best-known paintings include Flight from Etna , Crucifixion and La Vucciria . Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books...
, Ernesto Treccani, Aligi Sassu
Aligi Sassu
Aligi Sassu was an Italian painter and sculptor.-Biography:Aligi Sassu was born in Milan, Lombardy, into a Sardinian-origin family. His father Antonio was one of the founders of the Italian Socialist Party at Sassari in 1894, and had moved to Milan in 1896, where he had married Lina Pedretti in...
, Ennio Morlotti.