Anita Spinelli (8 January 1908 – 24 March 2010) was a Swiss artist, painter and drawer also known for her approaches to graphic work.

Life

Spinelli was born Anita Corti, in

Balerna Balerna is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Balerna is first mentioned in 1115 as ''Barerna''. In 844 and 865, the monastery of S. Ambrogio in Milan purchased land in the ''concilium'' of ...

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in 1908, the third child of four to Gemma and Gaetano Corti. She was initiated to art quite early. Her father, a businessman in

wine making Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. There is ...

, patronised several artists. After middle school she attended the Arts and Crafts School in

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

and Guido Gonzato's studio. Defying conventions and her family, she registered at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

of Art in

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 ...

, attended Aldo Carpi's special courses in

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and graduated in 1933. During this period she immersed herself in the buoyant artistic life of Milan, travelled to Paris and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and visited

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

, where she lived in the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

to study

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

s. In 1932 she married Paolo Spinelli, a civil servant and landowner with whom she had two daughters. They moved to the mansion of Pignora,

Novazzano Novazzano () is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Novazzano is first mentioned in 875 as ''Nepotiano''. In 1152 it was mentioned as ''Novezano''. Novazzano been inhabited since the Roma ...

in Ticino, where she lived and worked for most of her life.Brazzola (2008) She became an active member of the Society of Swiss Artists, Sculptors and Architects and set out her place in an artistic scene dominated by men. Invited to the XIX and XX National Art Exhibits of 1936 and 1941 her work was remarked on for her innovative mode of expression. She had her first solo exhibit in 1938 in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

. To overcome regional and cultural isolation she engaged after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

until the 1990s in extended travelling in the Mediterranean Basin and Europe, Africa, Central America and China with repeated and prolonged stays in the US. These travels were important sources of inspiration and have influenced her perception of light and space, which are central elements of her art. During her stay in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, Germany, in the early 1970s she took up engraving techniques again, neglected since art school, and through her novel approach this became a significant part of her work. Later on, Spinelli also engaged in art-science projects initiated by the

Lausanne University The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

department of

neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

with the task to render and visualize neurological disorders, medical gestures and different forms of

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sense, sensory and emotional experience associated with, or res ...

through her artistic approach. The themes treated were "The Hand in Neurology" (1987), "Dizziness and Mouvement" (1995), "Headache, Headaches and Faces" (1992) and resulted in several exhibits and publications. The confrontation of two fundamentally different dimensions of reality (the scientific approach that aims at evidence, and the artistic and sensitive approach that elicits the invisible but maintains a mystery) paradoxically revealed certain complementaries and the capacity of art to shed light on

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

phenomena and vice versa. She regularly showed her work in personal and collective exhibitions in institutional and private spaces. In 2002 a permanent display of her work has been created at the "Quadreria" in

, Ticino. Her last major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

was organized by the Museum of Art of Lugano in 2008. Anita Spinelli died on 24 March 2010 in

Mendrisio Mendrisio (; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Mendrisio (district), Mendrisio in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Mendrisio is the seat of the Accademia di Architettura di Mendris ...

of the consequences of an accident that occurred in her studio. She had continued to create art until her death. Her work is represented in museums, as well as in institutional and private collections in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Work

Spinelli's media were mainly oil paintings of different formats,

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s and mixed techniques, in which she elaborated her graphic work with colour and ink. In the large oil formats of her latter period she deployed

diptych A diptych (, ) is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by a hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world was a diptych consisting of a pair of such plates that contained a ...

s and

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

s. Spinelli's work explores individual and societal questions that characterized her long life as an actor and witness of the 20th and early 21st century. She appears to have attached a central importance to the human figure caught in everyday situations and attitudes. Her work roots in reality, an everyday reality that she transforms through imaginative accelerations into figures, mental figures, to capture another more hidden reality.Walter Schönenberger in: Maria Cristina Donati (2008), p 8. According to

Berger Berger is a surname in both German language, German and French language, French, although there is no etymological connection between the names in the two languages. The French surname is an occupational name for a shepherd, from Old French ''bergi ...

, Spinelli's work can be read on at least three levels of analysis: the first is her look that is not purely visual but involves participation; a further level, is that of self-reflection – she takes position with humour or irony, with joy or grief; on a third level, she elaborates

existential Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

questions. The quests and existential conditions, which encompass the very essence of human life, make up the core of her subjects: hope, joy but also loneliness, silence, memory, fear, separation, oppression, war and hardship. She expresses the interior sentience of being. In Spinelli's words:

"It is silent, curious listening: a search for the essence of the object, stripped of the superfluous, with hard work and without complacency. To make art means to me being alive among the living. My characters are myself. With them I share the load of good and evil. You cannot cheat."Franco Regli In: Claudio Nembrini, Angela Regli ed. Anita Spinelli – la quadreria e altre opere. 2002, p. 38.

Her work spanning over almost a century, Spinelli has addressed and analysed the formal debates of her time. She explored from

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

to post-

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

deconstruction, from

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

abstractionism Abstractionism is the theory that the mind obtains some or all of its concepts by abstracting them from concepts it already has, or from experience.Geach, Peter (1957) Mental Acts - Their Contents and Their Objects. Routledge Kegan Paul. One may, ...

(in particular

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

) to new forms of figuration, however never adhering completely to any one of these positions. Rather she synthesized and bent them freely to her needs. Spinelli developed a pictorial code characterized by vivid chromatics, dynamism, a wide freedom and complexity in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

, determined by simultaneity and disruption of perspective, where the figure emerges from an abstract spatiality. Spinelli's language is considered

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

in nature, but where a visionary spirit superposes or coexists with the tragic element. In her last period, her color-light rarefies to a

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

dimension of pure light, transparency and lightness. Her novel approaches, the sense of freedom and of expressive possibilities together with a constant poetic and ethical tension mark her contribution to the art world.

References

, 2004 (in Italian
swissbib
* Claudio Nembrini, Angela Regli ed. ''Anita Spinelli. La quadreria e altre opere.'' Lomazzo: Tecnografica, 200
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* René Berger. ''Anita Spinelli. Les signes revisités''. 1996 (in French) swissbib * Angela Regli ed. ''Anita Spinelli''. Scritti di Carlo Bertelli, Adriano Soldini, Losone: Poncioni, 1988 (in Italian, French and Englis
swissbib
* Adriano Soldini and

René René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminin ...

Berger. ''Anita Spinelli.''

Chiasso Chiasso (; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Mendrisio (district), Mendrisio in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. As Extreme points of Switzerland, the southernmost of Switzerland's ...

, 1980 (in Italian
swissbib

Book illustrations

* Franco Regli, Filippo Donati and Anita Spinelli. ''Migräne, eine Art Schmerz''. Deutsche Ausgabe, Baar: Janssen-Cilag, 200
swissbib
* Ugo Petrini. ''Tre poesie.'' Sassello, 200
swissbib
* Raphaël Maire, Franco Regli and Anita Spinelli. ''Vertiges et mouvements.'' Baar: Janssen-Cilag, 199
swissbib
* Franco Regli et al. ''Céphalées et visages''. Illustrations: Anita Spinelli. Baar: Janssen Pharmaceutica, 199
swissbib
* G. de Reynolds. ''Le Tessin, son âme.'' Cercle de Langue française,

, 198
swissbib

Filmography and broadcasts

* Matteo Bellinelli. ''Il secolo di Anita.'' Documentary (49'46'')''.'' Televisione della Svizzera Italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 23 March 2008 * Valeria Bruni. ''Anita Spinelli''. Televisione della Svizzera Italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 17 January 2008 * Graziano Terrani. ''Anita Spinelli''. Televisione della Svizzera italiana (TSI), Il Quotidiano, Lugano-Comano, 28 November 1998 * Graziano Terrani: ''Dipingere e vivere''. Televisione della Svizzera italiana (TSI), Lugano-Comano, 27 April 1988 * ''Incontro con la pittrice Anita Spinelli''. A cura di Claudio Nembrini. Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Rete 2, Filo Diretto, Lugano-Comano, 20 December 1998 * ''Anita Spinelli: il filo incandescente della vita''. A cura di Claudio Nembrini, con la partecipazione di Walter Schönenberger, Mario De Micheli e Anita Spinelli. Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Rete 2, Il mondo delle immagini, Lugano-Comano, 17 December 1990 * Eros Bellinelli. ''Mostra di Anita Spinelli sala Diego Chiesa Chiasso.'' Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, dicembre 1980 * P. Jelmorini. ''Anita Spinelli.'' Agenda culturale, 15 March 1978 * Eros Bellinelli. ''Anita Spinelli Corti, pittrice.'' Radio della Svizzera italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, 6 January 1955 * Piero Bianconi. ''Anita Spinelli o della vocazione''. Radio della Svizzera Italiana (RSI), Lugano-Comano, 1951 * V. Cavalleris. ''Les lettres et les arts en Suisse italienne. Femmes écrivains et artistes du Tessin.'' Radio de Suisse Romande (RSR), Lausanne, 25 February 1939

Reference books

* ''Biografisches Lexikon der Schweizer Kunst. Dictionnaire biographique de l'art suisse. Dizionario biografico dell'arte svizzera''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Karl Jost. Zürich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1998, 2 Bde. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Künstlerverzeichnis der Schweiz. Unter Einschluss des Fürstentums Liechtenstein. Répertoire des artistes suisses, la Principauté du Liechtenstein incluse. Dizionario degli artisti svizzeri, incluso il Principato di Liechtenstein. 1980–1990''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Karl Jost. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1991. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Lexikon der zeitgenössischen Schweizer Künstler. Dictionnaire des artistes suisses contemporains. Catalogo degli artisti svizzeri contemporanei''. Hrsg.: Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, Zürich und Lausanne; Leitung: Hans-Jörg Heusser. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1981. ''(in German, French and Italian)'' * ''Künstlerlexikon der Schweiz. XX. Jahrhundert'', Hrsg.: Verein zur Herausgabe des schweizerischen Künstler-Lexikons; Redaktion: Eduard Plüss. Hans Christoph von Tavel, Frauenfeld: Huber, 1958–1967, 2 Bde. ''(in German, French and Italian)''

External links

SIKART
Swiss Institute for Art Research
swissbib
metacatalog of Swiss University Libraries and the Swiss National Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Spinell, Anita 1908 births 2010 deaths Swiss female models Swiss women painters Modern painters Brera Academy alumni Swiss contemporary artists People from Ticino 20th-century Swiss painters 20th-century Swiss women artists Swiss women engravers 20th-century Swiss engravers