Biennale art
History
The Biennale between the two World Wars
1900-1940
The favourable attitude towards French art continued, and in 1928 an exhibition of the Parisian School with works by Bissière, Chagall, Ernst and Zadkine was set up. In those years significant attention was paid to artists living in the French capital. Mario Tozzi chose the title Appels d'Italie for an Exhibition he curated for the Biennale in 1930. Meanwhile in 1932, Severini presented an exhibition of Italian artists in Paris, in which he exhibited De Chirico's The gladiators amongst other works.
In those years the French Pavilion hosted retrospective exhibitions of Gaugain, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Manet, Degas, and Renoir, and presented contemporary masters such as Matisse (1928), Van Dongen (1930), and Zadkine (1932). Great Britain organised personal exhibitions of Nicolson, Epstein, and Moore, whilst Germany, prior to the outbreak of Nazism, presented Marc, Nolde, Klee and the Expressionists Dix, Hofer, Beckmann, Kirchner and Schmidt-Rottluff.
In 1930 the Biennale was transformed by a law into an Autonomous Body: The funding and statute were established with a decree in 1931. This transformation meant that the Biennale passed from the control of the Venice City Council to the Fascist government. Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, a far-seeing entrepreneur and amonsgt the founders of the Marghera industrial area, followed Ettore Zorzi as President of the Biennale. It was thanks to Volpi that the Biennale went beyond the boundaries of the Visual Arts section. Two Poetry conventions were promoted in 1932 and 1934, and a few exhibitions set up abroad. But above all, The Music Festival (1930), the International Film Festival (1932) and the Theatre Festival (1934) were founded.
In 1938 the Grand Prizes were established within the Art Exhibition. As war approached, the number of participating countries diminished considerably, reduced to just ten in 1942. The 1944 and 1946 editions of the Art Exhibition did not take place.
|
