- Also known as
-
Luigi Conconi
-
primary name: Conconi, Luigi
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; printmaker; Italian; Male
- Life dates
- 1852-1917
- Biography
- Text from Martin Hopkinson, 'Italian Prints 1875-1975', BMP, 2007
Born in Milan, the nephew of the painter Mauro Conconi, he studied architecture in Milan at the Accademia di Brera, and at the Regio Istituto Technico Superiore. His Professor of Mathematics was Luigi Cremona, brother of the painter, Tranquillo Cremona. Conconi frequented the 'Scapigliati' circle, which included Cremona, Daniele Ranzoni, Vespignano Bignami, and the architect, Luca Beltrami. He made his first etching in 1877 in connection with his work with the architect Guido Pisani Dosso on a project for the Palazzo Marini in Milan. Conconi used his architectural training occasionally throughout his career, most notably in unsuccessful entries for a series of competitions for public monuments in the early 1880s and early 1890s. In one of these in 1891, a competition for a monument to Dante in Trento, he worked with the sculptor and printmaker, Prince Paolo Troubetzkoy (1866-1938), a pupil of Giuseppe Grandi. Conconi also worked with Troubetzkoy, and the furniture designer, Eugenio Quarti, on a room for the 1906 Milan International exhibition. Three of Conconi's buildings designed between 1897 and 1900, however, were completed, the Villa Pisani Dossi on Lake Como, the tomb of the poet, Felice Cavallotti, at Dagnente on Lake Maggiore, and the Segre Chapel in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan.
Conconi's early paintings were influenced by Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni. His critical attitude to authority, and his opposition to contemporary academicism, in 1881 led him to organize, 'L'indisposizione artistica', a burlesque of the official National Milan exhibition. Until 1885 he shared a studio with the painter Gaetano Previati. Conconi soon developed an interest in visionary themes, often taking his inspiration from mediaeval legends and fables. He was also noted for his nocturnal subjects, and experimented with a diorama of the life of Dante. Conconi's association with the European symbolist movement led him in 1892 to consider participating in the Salon de la Rose + Croix in Paris. However, he was often in financial straits, and after 1895 only exhibited on invitation, although he received the international recognition of prizes in Paris in 1900, and in Munich in 1913. A committed social democrat, Conconi was involved with Giuseppe Mentessi, Luigi Rossi, and others in the organisation of courses run by the Società humanitaria in the 1890s, and served as a radical member of the Milan city council between 1899 and 1904. Conconi also worked as an illustrator, initially for the satirical journal, 'Guerino Meschino', of which he was co-founder and editor in 1882. From the early 1890s, he provided illustrations for political journals, and for books by Carlo Dossi, Alphonse Daudet, Emile Zola, Cervantes, the classical writer, Longus, and others.
Conconi was the leading Lombard exponent of the 'acquaforte monotipata', a technique which he learnt from the sculptor, Giuseppe Grandi. Conconi's friend, Beltrami, compared his inking of his plates with the art of a watercolourist. On occasion, he used his fingers directly on the plate to spread the ink. The abundant plate tone created evanescent effects, which were interpreted as evocative of memory and of the past. Conconi printed all his own plates on a press lent to him by the Famiglia Artistica, the Milan exhibiting society, with which he frequently showed. Almost a fifth of Conconi's 79 etchings were inspired by literature. Many of his prints were devoted to female figures. He also made seven architectural and seven portrait etchings, as well as producing landscapes, still -lives and plant studies.
- Bibliography
- Matteo Bianchi & Giovanna Ginex, 'LC incisore', Federico Motta editore, Milan 1994 (with catalogue of 79 prints) (see review Print Quarterly, XII 1995 pp.73-4)
