Gallery
Carlo Levi in his studio
Francesco Menzio in his studio
Gruppo dei Sei (Group of Six) or Sei di Torino (Six from Turin) was a group of painters who emerged under the mentorship of Felice Casorati in Turin in the late 1920s.
They exhibited together for three years starting in 1929. Although each artist had an individual style, they were linked together by the influence of Parisian Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, including the work of Amedeo Modigliani, and their anti-fascist ideology – a position that set them apart from other movements like Novecento Italiano and Futurism.
The six artists in the group were:
Their association was championed by art critics like Edoardo Persico and Lionello Venturi and contemporary art collector Riccardo Gualino who, together with his wife, had purchased a theater in Turin where he was endorsing avant-garde music concerts, dances, art events and plays.
The six artists first exhibited together in the spring of 1929 at Galleria Guglielmi in Turin. In November of the same year they had two other shows at Circolo della Stampa in Genoa and at Galleria Bardi in Milan (later to be known as Galleria Il Milione). A combination of personal and political disagreements eventually contributed to splitting the group apart, along with Gualino's decision to withdraw his financial support following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and his being put under house arrest by Benito Mussolini's government. Levi, Menzio, and Paulucci delle Roncole continued to exhibit together until 1935. [1]
Carlo Levi was an Italian painter, writer, activist, independent leftist politician, and doctor.
Francesco Menzio was an Italian painter.
Giuliano Briganti was an Italian art historian.
Antonio Bueno was an Italian painter of Spanish origin, who acquired Italian citizenship in 1970. He was born in Berlin while his journalist father was posted there by the newspaper ABC of Madrid.
Lionello Venturi was an Italian historian and critic of art. He edited the first catalogue raisonné of Paul Cézanne.
Luigi "Gino" Levi-Montalcini was an Italian architect and designer.
Ulvi Liegi was an Italian painter and printmaker. Part of the Post-macchiaioli movement, he painted various cityscapes of Livorno and depictions of Livornese daily life.
Enrico Reycend was an Italian painter, mainly of landscapes and vedute.
Ernesto Serra was an Italian genre, landscape and portrait painter from Varallo Sesia, Province of Vercelli in the Piemonte Region.
Carlo Martini was an Italian painter and academician.
Ugo Carrega was an Italian artist and poet. Carrega was one of the main exponents of visual poetry, although he preferred the term "New Writing", an experimental form of writing that combines signs of different extraction. Carrega was active mainly in Milan, where he founded the cultural centers Centro Suolo (1969), Centro Tool (1971), Mercato del Sale (1974) and Euforia Costante (1993). He also founded and directed the art magazines Tool (1965), Bollettino Tool (1968), aaa (1969) and Bollettino da dentro (1972).
Riccardo Gualino was an Italian business magnate and art collector. He was also a patron and an important film producer. His first business empire was based on lumber from Eastern Europe and included forest concessions, lumber mills, ships and warehouses. The highly leveraged structure collapsed in 1912–13. Gualino was also involved in manufacturing and distributing cement, and during World War I (1914–18) built and operated cargo ships carrying goods such as coal from the United States to Europe. After the war he was engaged in many enterprises, some in partnership with Giovanni Agnelli of FIAT. His activities included banking, manufacture of rayon, confectionery, chemicals and artificial leather.
Luigi Maria Giorgio Chessa (1898–1935) was an Italian painter, architect, scenic designer, and potter.
Jessie Boswell was an English painter, active mainly in her adoptive Piedmont, known as being one of the painters of the Gruppo dei Sei Pittori (1929–1931) in that city.
Daphne Mabel Maugham later Daphne Maugham-Casorati (1897–1982) was a British painter, who emigrated to Turin, Italy.
Pasquale Verrusio was an Italian painter, sculptor and engraver.
Return to the Sheepfold is a c. 1866 painting by Carlo Pittara, originally entitled The Return, now in the Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea in Turin.
Lea Vergine, born Lea Buoncristiano, was an Italian art critic, essayist, and curator.
Michele Guerrisi was an Italian sculptor, painter and writer.
Enrico Paulucci or Paulucci delle Roncole (1901–1999) was an Italian painter and scenic designer. He was one of the founding members of the Gruppo dei Sei.