Fondazione Primo Conti onlus, Fiesole (FI)

The Fondazione Primo Conti onlus, based in Fiesole (Florence), is an Italian cultural institution that combines a museum and a research archive. It was established in 1980 by the painter Primo Conti, who had purchased the fifteenth-century villa Le Coste in 1945 and lived there until his death. Conti, a protagonist of the Italian historical avant-garde, wanted to create a foundation that would manage the villa, his paintings, and the extensive documentary material he had collected over his lifetime, with particular focus on Tuscan and Italian artistic life and the early twentieth-century avant-garde movements. The foundation is a non-profit organization (onlus) and operates the Museo e Fondazione Primo Conti, located in via delle Coste in Fiesole. The villa houses a substantial archive and library on the first floor, while the ground floor contains a museum in six rooms that traces Conti's entire painting career, from his beginnings as a child prodigy inspired by Cézanne and the Fauves, through his Futurist period from 1917, to the figurative works of the 1940s and the informal turn of his later years. The foundation serves scholars and the public, preserving and making accessible books, magazines, manifestos, photographs, and especially correspondence between the major protagonists of the avant-garde movements and Italian writers, painters, and musicians. The institution is recognized as an archival institution in Italy and is listed in the national archival system.

The Fondazione Primo Conti onlus was established in 1980 by the artist Primo Conti, who was then eighty years old. Conti had purchased the fifteenth-century villa Le Coste in Fiesole in 1945 and lived there until his death. He and his wife are buried in the family chapel attached to the villa, dedicated to Saint Rosalia, with paintings of the saint's stories by Rinaldo Botti. Conti had already conceived the idea of a foundation in 1970, as evidenced by a letter to his friend Aldo Palazzeschi, in which he wrote: "It would be a matter, on my part, of establishing in this beautiful Fiesole house of mine and in the land surrounding it a 'Foundation' dedicated to the historical avant-gardes that developed in Florence in the first twenty years of the century (from Leonardo to Lacerba, etc.) with an archive that should welcome and make available to scholars a vast documentary material (books, magazines, manifestos, photographs and, above all, epistolary correspondence between the major protagonists of the innovative movements from every part of the world and our avant-garde writers, painters, musicians)." The foundation was created to manage the villa, Conti's paintings, and the numerous documents he had collected throughout his life, concerning Tuscan and Italian artistic life with particular regard to the period of the historical avant-gardes, of which Primo Conti was one of the protagonists in Italy. Today the villa houses a substantial archive and library on the first floor, while on the ground floor a museum has been set up in six rooms that traces the entire painting career of the artist, from his beginnings as a child prodigy inspired by Cézanne and the Fauves, to the Futurist period (from 1917), to the figurative period of the 1940s, up to the informal turn of his later years. The foundation is a non-profit organization (onlus) and is recognized as an archival institution in Italy. It is located in via delle Coste in Fiesole and is part of the national archival system.

• 1980

  The Fondazione Primo Conti is established by the artist.

• 1970

  Primo Conti writes to Aldo Palazzeschi outlining his idea for a foundation dedicated to the historical avant-garde.

• 1945

  Primo Conti purchases the fifteenth-century villa Le Coste in Fiesole.

A specialized cultural foundation and museum preserving the legacy of Primo Conti and the Italian historical avant-garde.

• Museo Primo Conti

  A museum in six rooms on the ground floor of villa Le Coste, tracing Primo Conti's painting career from his early years to his informal period.

• Archivio Primo Conti

  An archive on the first floor of the villa, containing books, magazines, manifestos, photographs, and correspondence related to the historical avant-garde.

• Biblioteca

  A library housed in the villa, available to scholars.

1. 1Fondazione Primo Conti onlus, Fiesole (FI) - Wikidatawikidata.org
2. 2Museo e Fondazione Primo Conti - Wikipediait.wikipedia.org
3. 3Official websitefondazioneprimoconti.org