FELICE FILIPPINI

BIOGRAPHY

Felice Filippini was born in Arbedo, on the outskirts of Bellinzona, in 1917, to a family from a modest background. In 1933, he spent a short period studying drawing at the Technicum in Fribourg, then spent the following year at the Maria Hilf Lyceum in Schwyz. In 1937, he took his diploma at the teacher training college in Locarno, where he had already come into touch with Ugo Zaccheo in 1934, working in his atelier. What Filippini learned from this first maestro in the field of art was soon consolidated by the teachings of Carlo Cotti.

1938 found him in Lugano, employed as an archivist at Radio Monteceneri (which later became Radio della Svizzera Italiana: the Radio for Italian Switzerland). Filippini worked with the public radio until 1969: taking over responsibility for spoken programmes in 1945, he used his position in particular to invite representatives and voices from Italian culture to come to visit Switzerland.

In 1940, he married the pianist Dafne Salati. Two children were born to the couple, Rocco in 1943 and Saskia in 1946, who both embarked on successful careers as musicians, playing the cello and the violin respectively. Musical talent was also a natural gift for Felice Filippini himself, rounding off his volcanic personality: although music was to remain a private affair in his case, his musical skills developed to a degree of considerable ability.

In parallel with his work as a painter, Filippini never ceased to focus on his writing. In addition to working as a cultural journalist, he was a prolific author of radio plays, novels, poetry, much - but not all - of which has been published. In 1943, he caused a furore with his Signore dei poveri morti, which won the important Lugano Award in 1942 and was immediately translated for a German Swiss and for a French Swiss publisher in 1945: the style in which he wrote the long story was compared to the one used by Elio Vittorini for his Conversazione in Sicilia (see Flavio Catenazzi's critical edition published by Marsilio in Venice in 2000). In 1950, Salvioni of Bellinzona and Mondadori of Milan brought out simultaneous editions of Ragno di sera, which Salvioni republished in an anastatic copy in 2000. As an essayist, his Procuste (published in Svizzera italiana, N° 70-71, 1948) won the 1948 International Critics' Award at the Venice Biennale. Felice Filippini also worked as a translator from French and German into Italian.

After early efforts with woodcuts and painting, Filippini soon took an abiding interest in mural painting. Taking part in the leading competitions for decorating public buildings, he always made a distinguished mark. In 1940, he painted one of the chapels in the Via Crucis at Morcote (although the painting was immediately destroyed by vandals); in 1941, he illustrated the Stories of San Nicolao of Flüele for the military chapel at Monte Ceneri. In 1949, he decorated the chapel in the square in front of the Teacher Training College in Locarno; in 1957, he painted the scene of the Wedding Feast in Ticino on the wall of the top floor of the main staircase in the new Government Building in Bellinzona. But the complete list of Filippini's mural decorations is much longer.

Felice Filippini also took a lively interest in book illustration: since it would be quite impossible to list them all here, we can at least mention the 100 linocuts made for Guglielmo Canevascini's Ein Dorf Erwacht, published in Zurich by Büchergilde in 1944. His 1965 meeting with Alberto Giacometti made a lasting impression on Filippini, leading to the creation of a series of works dedicated to Giacometti and his essay entitled Fare il ritratto di Giacometti (Making the Portrait of Giacometti), for the Marino Gallery in Locarno, 1966, and the Elvetica in Chiasso in 1968.

Another turning point in Filippini's research came at the beginning of the seventies, when he went into a coma after a serious car accident. Felice Filippini died in Muzzano in 1988.

In the following year of 1989, the artist's heirs established the Felice Filippini Archives, which hold several hundred works in a variety of media, including paintings, drawings, prints, frescos and mosaics, as well as many documentary records. The Archives are currently housed in Manno (Lugano). The materials that cover Felice Filippini's literary output were donated by the family to the Cantonal Library in Lugano, where they are now held in the Felice Filippini Collection in the Prezzolini Archives.

Filippini's figurative works, which won him a significant number of awards and acknowledgements, often caused a furore and much opposition, especially in the forties. Success came to him after 1960, to an extent that bears little comparison to the regional art scene, although it was accompanied by a gradual detachment and progressive diffidence on the part of intellectual circles and the critics. Even now, Felice Filippini, whose extensive and many-faceted creativity cannot fail to generate an impression, remains an awkward figure whose unique characteristics are still awaiting a clear definition.

MARIA WILL - Quaderni di Villa dei Cedri, Felice Filippini Scrittore di immagini, Bellinzona, 2005

 

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