Digital Exhibition
This digital exhibition, created in collaboration with the Enrico Crispolti Archive in Rome, could be visited on the Francesco Somaini Foundation website. It documents the salient stages of the collaboration and friendship established between the sculptor and the critic from 1956 to 2005 (year of death of the artist), through some personal photos, works’ images preserved in the Crispolti collection, book covers and catalogs, as well as some letters taken from their monumental correspondence. The young critic was struck by the sculptor’s work at the Venice Biennale in 1956, where he was present with two large works in ferric conglomerate placed at the entrance to the Italian Pavilion. After that, he visited Somaini’s atelier in Lomazzo for the first time and this meeting will transform over time into a long friendship and collaboration, punctuated by numerous exhibition and editorial opportunities. As a matter of fact, the critic will follow the artist in the various stages of the evolution of his creative activity, starting with the presentation of the concretist phase’s works in the personal exhibition at the La Salita Gallery (Rome, 1957), during the informal season (Odyssia Gallery, Rome, 1959) and the subsequent proposal of a new plastic research, promptly reported in the Omaggio a Somaini in the context of Alternative Attuali 3 in L’Aquila in 1968. This research will lead the artist to make a profound reflection on the relationship between sculpture, architecture and urban context, which resulted in Urgenza nella città, co-written with Enrico Crispolti in 1972; as an important moment of their collaboration it will lead the critic to orient his own interests in the field of sculpture as social participation (Operation 24 sheets and Volterra ’73, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToJkny3Taug), during the following year, and the artist to the proposal of new types of environmental works, with the conception of the Carnificazioni di un’architettura, of the following Antropoammoniti, carved matrices that generate a trace, and of the related photomontages of utopian contextualization. It is no coincidence that Crispolti (as commissioner and then as curator of the Italian Pavilion) presented these Somaini’s works at the 1976 and 1978 Venice Biennials. The same topic will be addressed later in various exhibitions up to the exhibition at the Triennale Palace in Milan in 2017 (Francesco Somaini. Uno scultore per la città. New York 1967-1976).
The critic will accompany Somaini’s activity until the last season, taking care of the Somaini monograph Somaini. Le grandi opere. Realizzazioni, progetti, utopie (1997) and the IX Biennale Internazionale di Scultura “Città di Carrara”. Scultura, architettura, città (1998).
Crispolti is also the curator with Luisa Somaini of the Catalog Raisonné of the sculpture forthcoming by Skira.
Personal photos
Enrico Crispolti (Rome, 1933-2018), a “militant” critic, art historian and university professor. He met Francesco Somaini in 1956; from that moment on he began assiduously following his work in all its phases, from his periods of concrete to informal art and then his study of the relationship between sculpture, architecture and urban settings. He was also one of the most prestigious experts on Futurism, Informal Art, Pop Art and artists of many trends, and starting in the second half of the 1950s he founded one of the vastest private archives in Italy as a centre of documentation of contemporary art (https://www.archiviocrispolti.it).
Somaini e Crispolti alla Galleria La salita, Roma, 1957 
Crispolti e Somaini a “Volterra ’73”,
Volterra, 1973
Somaini e Crispolti alla Galleria Condotti 85, Roma, 1974 
Somaini e Crispolti all’Università di Siena, Siena, 1985 
Enrico Crispolti Methodology of an Art Critic in conversation with Angelo Casciello:
From the correspondence Somaini-Crispolti
1 – Crispolti e Somaini, 25 Marzo 1957 
1 bis – Crispolti e Somaini, 25 Marzo 1957 
Somaini a Crispolti, giugno 1964. International Business Machines and Coca Cola Pavilions at the World’s Fair, New York City
3 – Somaini a Crispolti, post 31 ottobre 1971
3 bis – Somaini a Crispolti, post 31 ottobre 1971 
3 tris – Somaini a Crispolti, post 31 ottobre 1971 
Somaini a Crispolti, 9 giugno 1972. Twilight time – Mid Manhattan, New York City
Somaini a Crispolti, 9 giugno 1972. Twilight time – Mid Manhattan, New York City 
1 – Somaini e Crispolti, 23 Marzo 1979 
1 bis – Somaini e Crispolti, 23 Marzo 1979 
1 tris – Somaini e Crispolti, 23 Marzo 1979 
Somaini e Crispolti, 3 Marzo 1983. Syria: Aleppo – The Citadel 
Somaini e Crispolti, 3 Marzo 1983. Syria: Aleppo – The Citadel
Artworks in Crispolti Collection
Canto aperto, (1955-56), conglomerato ferrico ripreso a scalpello su base in ferro, 54×67,5x 47 cm, base 4,5x20x20 cm circa
Aggressiva piccolissima II. II stadio complesso, 1959, ferro grafitato ripreso dall’artista con lucidi parziali su base in ferro, 22x29x16 cm circa, base 5x38x18 cm
Ferito III. Piccolo Addio. Piagato, 1960, piombo scavato dall’artista a fiamma con lucidi parziali su base in ferro, 27x38x42 cm circa, base 25,5x25x30 cm
Piccolo Trono I. La Fonte, 1966, bronzo in bagno di nichel su base in legno, 69x40x36 cm, base 7x50x49 cm
Scultura ponte all’ingresso della city, 1971, inchiostro di china su carta, 510×730 mm
Scultura aggettante su di un quadrivio, 1971, inchiostro di china su carta, 510×730 mm
Scultura affiorante: ingresso ad una metropolitana, 1971, inchiostro di china su carta, 730×510 mm
Scultura affiorante in una strada di una grande città, 1971, inchiostro di china su carta, 510×730 mm
Galleria a copertura traslucida che sovrasta una strada urbana attrezzata, serigrafia su carta,697×495 mm (edizione del 1975 da un disegno del 1971)
Piazza sotterranea a più piani che si affaccia su parte di un vasto elemento scolpito, serigrafia su carta, 495×700 mm (edizione del 1975 da un disegno del 1971)
Antropoammonite I e la sua traccia. Operazione Arcevia con impronte [proposta per la copertina della monografia Francesco Somaini, Edizioni Bora, Bologna 1979], (1979), fotocollage, 300×210 mm circa
Fortunia oppure Fortunia che si specchia nell’acqua [III] oppure Piccola Menade III, 1992, alpacca su base in legno, 21,5x22x9 cm circa, base 4x30x20 cm circa
Some catalogs and monographs
Crispolti presenta Somaini alla sua seconda personale alla Galleria La Salita, Roma, 1957.
Crispolti presenta Somaini alla sua personale alla Galleria Odyssia, Roma, 1959.
Omaggio a Somaini ad Alternative Attuali 3, L’Aquila, 1968
Enrico Crispolti, Francesco Somaini, Urban Urgencies, Milano 1973.
Volterra ’73, Volterra, 1973.
Dissuasione manifesta, Operazione 24 fogli, Roma, 1973 (fronte).
