FIUME AND THE CANZO SILK MILL

In 1946, in order to devote himself entirely to painting Fiume moved to Canzo from Ivrea, where he had worked as art director of the Olivetti factory magazine. Having rented a small flat in the centre of the little town and an old disused silk mill as a studio, he started to work with great dedication, and with the passing of time Canzo turned out to be an ideal place, also because of its relative proximity to Milan. Here in 1949 he held his first official exhibition at the Galleria Borromini thanks to the friendship and respect of two prestigious intellectuals like Alberto Savinio and Raffaele Carrieri (his very first exhibition had been of paintings signed F. Queyo at the Galleria Gussoni of Milan in 1948). Interestingly, the former silk mill was extremely similar to the one Fiume had imagined in one of his drawings long before seeing it. In 1952 he purchased it and the following year he and his family moved permanently into it. Over the years spent by Fiume in the former silk mill of Canzo until his death in 1997, the building underwent various transformations and was adapted to different functions. In 1951/1952 the large hall was used to host the large canvases (48 m x 3 m) painted by Fiume for the first class lounge of the Andrea Doria transatlantic liner which unfortunately was wrecked in July, 1956. Starting in 1953, sections of the building were adapted to host the ceramics equipment and an old wood burning kiln formerly used in the silk production process was activated. Later transformations involved a number of rooms for the production of serigraphs and lithographs that Fiume preferred to carry out on his own using artisanal printing machinery. In the early 1970s after purchasing a new wing of the building adjacent to his own one Fiume was able to create a number of huge sculptures in the large hall on the second floor. In 1972 this was transformed into a 300-seats concert hall after a three-manual pipe organ (tracker action) was built in it. This made Canzo become for a few years the Italian little capital of organ music. After the death in 1976 of Fiume’s wife, who had been the key animator of the concert seasons, the organ was donated to the church of Asso, near Canzo. The large hall now hosts a permanent exhibition of Fiume’s works as well as the studio of his daughter Laura, also a painter. The whole former silk mill which has in the meantime become the seat of the Fondazione Salvatore Fiume, is virtually a museum which can be visited by appointment. This transformation came after FAI (the Italian National Trust) suggested the opening of the Fondazione to the public for the Spring Days of FAI in March 2006, a successful initiative which started what has now become a tradition of guided visits.