The History of 'Novecento Italiano' (1920-1932) : The Poetics and Vicissitudes of Sarfatti's Movement

The fruit of over twenty years of research, this book examines for the first time in a systematic manner the origins, development, and history of the art movement known as Novecento Italiano (or "Novecento"): the most prominent aesthetic phenomenon to emerge under the Fascist regime between the World Wars. It analyzes all the exhibitions of Novecento Italiano, even those unknown, and the aspects of "Novecento" that still remain in shadow: the nature of its poetics, its Platonic suggestions, its aspiration to a modern classicism, its opposition to impressionism, eclecticism, symbolism.The first four chapters of the book are devoted to the poetics of the movement, while the following ten reconstruct its development using new data gleaned from letters, archives and the press of the time. The relationship between the movement and fascism is also discussed and clarified.