Who was Federico Cerruti?
July 24 2017
Picture: TAN
One of Italy's most important contemporary art museums, the Castello di Rivoli near Turin, has announced an important new partnership with the collection of Federico Cerruti, allowing it to show works by Pontormo, Renoir, Modigliani, Kandinsky, Klee, Boccioni, Balla, Magritte, Bacon, Burri, Warhol, and many others.
You may not have heard of Cerruti, for he was a recluse, and made his money from binding telephone directories. But in The Art Newspaper, Anna Somers Cocks has written a fascinating piece on his life and collection:
Every Sunday, Federico Cerruti would drive his unremarkable car to his unremarkable villa near the Castello di Rivoli and sit down to lunch, served by his faithful housekeeper Marcellina, in a porticoed room full of orchids. He might have chosen to sit in his dining room with its ten Metaphysical De Chiricos, but he liked to be with the flowers. He loved beauty, and every room was rich in masterpieces that he had bought from auction catalogues and by just waiting for the art world to come to him. They were his family, his friends, his only raison d’être apart from his work.
More here in TAN, and more here on the collection and visiting times.
