Emilio Villa (

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, 21 September 1914 –

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

, 14 January 2003) was an Italian poet, visual artist, translator, art critic and Bible scholar. His poems reflected his knowledge of modern and ancient languages, including Italian, French, English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sumerian, and Akkadian. Villa is considered the forerunner of groups such as the neo-avant-garde, Gruppo 63 and Novissimi, as well as for his commitment to promote artists such as Alberto Burri, Mirko Basaldella, Gastone Novelli and, more recently, Claudio Parmiggiani,

Mimmo Paladino Mimmo Paladino (born in Paduli on 18 December 1948) is an Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker. He is a leading name in the Transvanguardia artistic movement and one of the many European artists to revive Expressionism in the 1980s. Biograp ...

and Gino De Dominicis.

Life

Emilio Villa was born in Milan. He aspired to become a priest and attended the

Archiepiscopal seminary of Milan The archiepiscopal seminary of Milan is the Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Milan. It has three seats: in Venegono Inferiore (Varese province), Seveso ( Monza e Brianza Province) and in Milan. The latter also hosts the Istituto sacerdo ...

before dropping out to concentrate on his studies on ancient languages. He later became interested in Noigandres poetry and the writings of

Roger Caillois Roger Caillois (; 3 March 1913 – 21 December 1978) was a French intellectual and prolific writer whose original work brought together literary criticism, sociology, poetry, ludology and philosophy by focusing on very diverse subjects such as ...

, and started to champion primitive writing. He co-founded the magazine ''Habitat'' and contributed to ''O Nivel''., In 1950, Villa moved to

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, where he befriended Brazilian " concrete poets" Haroldo de Campos and

Augusto de Campos Augusto de Campos (born 14 February 1931) is a Brazilian writer who (with his brother Haroldo de Campos) was a founder of the Concrete poetry movement in Brazil. He is also a translator, music critic and visual artist. Work In 1952 he founded ...

. He later returned to Italy and settled in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

where he got involved with the local art scene, working with artists such as Alberto Burri,

Sante Monachesi Sante Monachesi (1910–1991), was an Italian painter belonging to the modern movement of the '' Scuola romana (Roman School)'' and founder in 1932 of the ''Movimento Futurista nelle Marche ( Futurist Movement of Marche)''. Life and career M ...

, Mario Schifano, Gino De Dominicis,

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

, Sebastiano Matta, Mario Schifano, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Patrizia Vicinelli, Giulio Turcato and Francesco Lo Savio. From the late 1950s through the early 1960s he collaborated with the art gallery Appia Antica in Rome. During that time, he also edited a contemporary art magazine associated with the gallery and published by Liana Sisti and Mario Ricci called ''Appia Antica: Atlas of New Art''. Villa's scholarly etymological knowledge prompted him to try to make dead languages interact with living ones. He promoted his work in a semi-clandestine way, favouring independent publishers over more established names, as he felt experimentation and mainstream couldn't go together. Most of his writings were printed by small publishing houses or publications throughout Italy, and many are unavailable today. These include ''Il Frontespizio'', ''Il Meridiano'', ''Letteratura'', ''Malebolge'', ''Tam Tam'', ''Baobab'', ''Ana Etcetera'', ''Documento-Sud'', ''Linea-Sud'', and ''Continuum''.See the biographical notes compiled on 11/27/2013 by Aldo Tagliaferri (published biographer of E.V.) in "discussion") Villa also translated into Italian the Babylonian creation epic '' Enuma Elis'', Homer's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

'', and several books of the Hebrew Scriptures, including the first five books of Moses (

Pentateuch The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () o ...

Job Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...

Proverbs A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

and

Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...

. Villa died in

in 2003.

Legacy

From 6 August to 19 September 2021, the Appia Antica Archaeological Park in Rome held the exhibition ''Appia Antica: Atlas of New Art''. The show traced the history of the Appia Antica art gallery and the magazine. The largest collection of Villa's material, curated by Aldo Tagliaferri, is in the archive of the Museo della Carale Accattino in Ivrea.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa'', Contra Mundum Press, New York, 2014. (Trans. Dominic Siracusa)

References

*Renello, Gian Paolo. 2007. ''Segnare un secolo. Emilio Villa: la parola, l’immagine''. Rome, DeriveApprodi. *Campi, Enzo. 2013. ''Parabol(ich)e dell’ultimo giorno. Per Emilio Villa.'' Milan, Dotcom Press.

Notes

External links

*http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/emilio-villa {{DEFAULTSORT:Villa, Emilio Italian male poets Italian art critics 20th-century Italian artists Translators from Sumerian Translators from Hebrew Translators of the Bible into Italian 1914 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian translators 20th-century Italian male writers Italian male non-fiction writers Italian magazine editors Gruppo 63