Tullio (Mazzotti) d'Albisola (1899-1971) and the Avant-Garde Before and After WWII

Tullio Spartaco Mazzotti, later renamed by F.T. Marinetti Tullio d’Albisola, was a ceramist originally from the town of Albissola, a small community on the Ligurian coast, in Italy. He is commonly known for his contribution to Futurist ceramic design, and the most significant research conducted on his work has placed him firmly in the field of ceramic art and within the history of the second phase of Italian Futurism, the so-called ‘Secondo Futurismo' (see the two landmark exhibitions curated by art historian Enrico Crispolti in the 1980s). My research aims to extend current scholarship by reassessing d’Albisola's links with the artistic Avant-Garde, especially his unexplored collaboration with major exponents of the Informale in Italy, thus unearthing his contribution to the affirmation of contemporary artistic ceramics and its artistic recognition. In Chapter Two, I analyse his engagement with Futurism, from 1929 to the outbreak of World War II: in particular, I outline his collaboration with the Turin-based group of Futurists, such as Fillìa and Nicolaj Diulgheroff, and with Bruno Munari, who lived in Milan, but who was in regular contact with Futurism’s headquarters in Rome. Chapters Three and Four focus on d’Albisola’s work after World War II: in particular, in Chapter Three, I explore his collaboration with the artist Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) and how their activity transformed the small community of Albissola into a hub for avant-garde artistic research. Chapter Four analyses d’Albisola's unexplored work with the ex-Co.Br.A., and especially his collaboration with the Danish painter Asger Jorn (1914-1973). As it will emerge, his yearning for innovation went far beyond his production of Futurist pottery, but was arguably the fil rouge connecting Futurism with the later generations of avant-garde artists and practitioners that worked in his ceramic factory after World War II.