Rago Auctions

Massimo Campigli was born in Berlin as Max Ihlenfeld in 1895 and would become a significant artist and journalist of the 20th century, bringing ancient influences into the burgeoning discourse of Modern art. As a collaborator with legendary designer Gio Ponti, Campigli adorned the entrance hall of the Palazzo Liviano with a massive 300 square foot fresco.

Campigli spent the majority of his childhood in Florence, and moved to Milan with his family in 1909. There, he mingled with the avant-garde, working with the magazine Letteratura as well as contributing to Futurist magazine Lacerba. His intellectual pursuits were interrupted by World War I, when he was held in Hungary as a prisoner of war from 1916 to 1918.

After the war ended, Campigli moved to Paris to work as a foreign correspondent for an Italian newspaper and it was here that he first began to paint. In addition to spending time among the artist milieu of Café de Dôme, Campigli would find great inspiration from the ancient Egyptian art at the Louvre as well as the works of Picasso and Fernand Léger. His first solo exhibition was hosted in Rome in 1923, and in 1928 he would be included in the Venice Biennale for the first time.

Campigli’s encounter with Etruscan art in Rome would critically impact his body of work, which thus pivoted towards a style fully embracing muted tones and references to archaic history. These works were received favorably, and he went on to show internationally with solo exhibitions in Paris, Milan, and New York. During the 1930s he embarked upon several high-profile public art commissions, including a giant fresco for the Ponti-designed Liviano in Padua, Italy.