부산대학교 도서관

Margherita Grassini Sarfatti (1880-1961) was a journalist, art critic and patron of avant-garde artists. A Venetian of Jewish origin, she was very influential during Fascism thanks to her relationship with Benito Mussolini. She began her career as an art journalist in the early twentieth century with reviews of the Venice Biennale, the first woman to do so for art columns in Italian newspapers. During the 1910s, she consolidated her relationship with the Futurist group led by Marinetti, whom she met every Wednesday in her Milanese salon in Corso Venezia. She played a crucial rôle in the Italian art world between the wars as an art critic and by promoting the Novecento group. This circle included several of the leading artists of the time, such as Mario Sironi, Achille Funi and Adolfo Wildt, and operated under the aegis of a ‘return to order’ and a ‘new classicism’. Using documents from the Fondo Sarfatti at MART, Rovereto, this essay explores Sarfatti’s activity within the Futurist ambit in the 1910s, her relationship with Marinetti, her campaign for the Novecento group in the 1920s, and the conflicts between Futurism and Novecento when both tried to establish themselves as hegemonic art movement in the Fascist State.