From 24 October 2015 to 10 January 2016 the Casino dei Principi and the Casino Nobile of Villa Torlonia are hosting the exhibition Mario Sironi and the illustrations for “Il Popolo d’Italia” 1921-1940. Curated by Fabio Benzi, with the historical consultancy of Monica Cioli, the exhibition brings together 345 illustrations made by one
Fascist Party. The exhibition – promoted by the Department of Culture and Sport of Rome-Sovrintendenza Capitolina to Cultural Heritage and realised thanks to the support of the Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei, main sponsor, and of COFELY ITALIA, GRUPPO ENGIE – represents a unique opportunity to make known to the general public a public a fundamental aspect of Sironi’s work: that of an illustrator and, more precisely, of a “political draughtsman”, an activity to which he dedicated himself with passionate fervour between 1921 and 1942 after a full and enthusiastic adhesion to the ideals of the regime. The cartoons that make up the The cartoons that make up the exhibition, most of which were produced between 1921 and 1927, come from a corpus of over 2000 drawings and constitute the largest number of drawings in the world. of over 2000 drawings and constitute the greatest illustrative effort of Sironi’s career, so much so that they to all effects they can be considered not only an essential part of his artistic production artistic production but also, in many respects, ‘the highest and most powerful’. They also represent an extraordinary historical testimony because, as curator Fabio Benzi recalls, they constitute “a and memorable
exercise of life and style at the same time, the result of an observation that is certainly biased but of a certainly singular height’.
