Massimo Campigli - The Two Bathers

In the history of art, a clear distinction can often be made between figurative and abstract stylistic movements. However, when an artist's goal is to represent an object that resonates with phenomenal reality but is also charged with hidden and symbolic meaning, this boundary can become blurred. Symbolism and Expressionism are emblematic stylistic movements in their conceptual interpretation of reality, with an iconic rendering of images and a symbolic interpretation in the use of color.

Massimo Campigli's artistic production fits perfectly into the climate of a return to order that gripped European painting between the 1930s and 1940s. After a period of great innovation and experimentation by the historical avant-garde, some pictorial circles felt the need for a return to tradition. Archaic figurative forms were therefore reworked and recontextualized in a contemporary context. This is evident in Campigli's work, whose pictorial language draws on the fascination of ancient Egyptian painting and Etruscan and Roman frescoes. Campigli embraces this stylistic form and makes it his own in a consistently contemporary metaphysical interpretation. Formally, Campigli seeks abstract simplification and iconic fixity in a graphic sign that seeks to imitate an antique patina.

Massimo Campigli was born in Berlin in 1895 under the real name Max Ihlenfeld and died in Saint-Tropez in 1971. In 1909, he moved to Florence and came into contact with the Milanese Futurists. His experience in Paris, starting in 1919, was crucial to his development, where he met De Chirico, Savinio, and Severini. Visiting the Louvre, he was fascinated by Egyptian art. Another key step, in 1928, was his exposure to the Etruscan frescoes at Villa Giulia. In 1933, he signed the Manifesto of Mural Painting with Sironi, Carrà, and Funi. He participated in numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad. He frescoed the Palace of Justice in Milan, the University of Padua, and the Italian Pavilion in New York.

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