Giuseppe Sommaruga (1867 - 1917)

Giuseppe Sommaruga (Milan 11 July 1867 - Milan 27 March 1917),
coming from a family of decorator artisans, he was a pupil of Camillo Boito at the Brera Academy; but he soon reacted to the setting
historicist of the master, to whom he contrasted the search for an architecture
able to find in itself, in terms of organic vitality, the
reasons of your style.

The undisputed promoter of Milanese Liberty architecture between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the leader of a modernist current that, taking on particular cadences, determines the characteristic Liberty style.

At the beginning of the century it was already considered, with Moretti, the most representative personality of the young generation of Milanese architects.

The literature around Sommaruga is very scarce. Note the notes of Melani for the Castiglioni palace and a monograph written by Monneret de Villard. 1914 saw an intelligent contribution by Gianni Ulisse Arata, one of the few followers of Sommaruga.

The image we have of Giuseppe Sommaruga is a reflected image, mediated through his works and the testimonies of the time.

Villa Carosio in Baveno.

In Sarnico there is the greatest concentration of Liberty villas designed by Sommaruga.

Sommaruga was a prominent personality in the Milanese environment:

Honorary member and advisor of the Accademia di Brera, member of the commission of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, president of the Association of Lombardi Architects.

Recently he was a member of the Superior Council of Fine Arts and first president of the National Federation of Italian Architects.

A path that also meant social affirmation and personal prestige and which can be followed emblematically in the successions of the architect's domiciles

It is known only (by the obituaries) that he had a wife named Adelina Volonteri, a daughter Elisa, brothers Giovanni and Cesare, father-in-law Antonio Volonteri.

Giuseppe Sommaruga was not only one of the greatest exponents of Italian Liberty but also a light-hearted innovator and an avant-garde who redefined the style of Art Nouveau itself.

Three evocative locations (Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori, State Archives in Varese and Palazzo Lombardia in Milan) were the backdrop to an unprecedented photographic and documentary exhibition. The locations of the exhibition were specifically chosen after careful research:

The Grand Hotel Campo dei Fiori, closed for five decades: an unjustly forgotten masterpiece of Italian Liberty designed by Sommaruga;

The Varese State Archives contains original documents by Giuseppe Sommaruga and Hector Guimard, a contemporary of Sommaruga (also born in 1867) architect of international Modernism, an architectural style parallel to Italian Liberty.

Palazzo Lombardia in Milan, headquarters of the Region, in its modern forms, recalls the typical stylistic features of Italian Liberty with concave and convex shapes.

An exhibition that has only one watchword: Emotion, the emotion of savoring the charm of the Art Nouveau style in absolutely unique, evocative locations not normally accessible to the public.