Italian art critic Enrico Crispolti dies at 85

Enrico Crispolti, a leading Italian art historian and critic, died in Rome at age 85. A student of Lionello Venturi and Giulio Carlo Argan, he taught at the University of Salerno and the University of Siena, where he directed the School of Specialization in Art History. In 1976, he curated the Italian section at the Venice Biennale. Crispolti was a key scholar of Futurism, organizing landmark exhibitions such as the first major Giacomo Balla retrospective at the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna in Turin (1963), 'Ricostruzione futurista dell'universo' at the Mole Antonelliana in Turin (1980), 'Il Futurismo e la moda' at the PAC in Milan (1988), and 'Casa Balla e il Futurismo a Roma' at Villa Medici in Rome (1989). He also curated international shows including 'Italiens Moderne. Futurismus und Rationalismus' at the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel and 'Futurism' in Tokyo (1992), and 'Futurismo' at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (2001). He compiled catalogues raisonnés for Lucio Fontana, Enrico Baj, Fulvio Muzi, Renato Guttuso, Corrado Cagli, Mirko and Afro Basaldella, Alberto Burri, and Charles Szymkowicz. His 1971 book 'L'Informale. Storia e poetica' emerged from direct dialogue with Emilio Vedova. His final projects included curating 'Dal Simbolismo all’Astrazione. Il primo Novecento a Roma nella Collezione Jacorossi' at Musia in Rome, and 'Mémoire du passé/Mémoire du futur' by Charles Szymkowicz, which ended in Siena in June 2018.