Paintings for the Casa del Fascio

Among the group of Como artists linked to the leading figure of Giuseppe Terragni, Mario Radice stands out for the completeness and complexity of this work. Leader of the Como abstract group, Radice was an abstract
and, at the same time, a figurative artist. he designed sculptures and paintings of notable architectural value. He was a theorist, art critic, essayist, exhibition curator and a profoundly ethical and moral man. His considerable artistic production found its crucial moment in the panels for Terragni’s Casa del Fascio (1932–1936). This commission consisted in a series of abstract plastic compositions based on a Cartesian grid into which were inserted texts taken from Mussolini’s writings and speeches. The compositions were based on intersections of straight lines. They were designed according to the perfect proportions dictated by the golden section, with intersections taking place on different planes with flat colour background.
These decorations took so long and was so laborious. All these works were destroyed after 1943.
Fortunately, the countless studies, sketches and preparatory drawings, as well as numerous contemporary and subsequent works that take up or rethink the subject. A large part of these works was donated to the Pinacoteca di Como and forms the core of the permanent exhibition dedicated to Mario Radice. (R. Lietti)