Manlio Trucco Biography
Manlio Trucco was born in Genoa on 14 February 1884. After many trips to Europe, Africa and South America, while still very young, he moved to Paris where, working for Paul Poiret's atelier as a designer, he had the opportunity to meet young artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Gino Severini and Max Jacob. In 1921 he returned to Italy, to Albisola Capo, called by the owners of the artistic ceramic factory "La Casa dell'Arte", Giuseppe Agnino, Giulio Barile and Angelo Barile and here he introduced the decorative motifs of the Decò style learned in Paris. After only a year he left "La Casa dell'Arte" and opened his own workshop, "La Fenice", where he hosted many artists including Arturo Martini for whom he painted, between 1926 and 1927, some small terracotta sculptures of character twentieth century works which the same year were exhibited, enjoying great success, at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan and subsequently in Venice. In 1923 Manlio Trucco exhibited some of his creations in Art Deco style at the Cordelliana in Turin (where he obtained a gold medal), at the 1st National Exhibition of Crafts and Small Businesses and at the 1st Biennial of Decorative Art in Monza. In 1924 he presented some works at the annual exhibition of the Society of Fine Arts and at the National Exhibition of Modern Ceramics in Pesaro. In 1925 he was again present at the Monza Biennale and participated in the Paris Expo. In 1926 he was a silver medalist at the ENAPI exhibition in Florence, the following year he participated in the III Biennale of Monza and the Tripoli Trade Fair. In 1929 he obtained a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Barcelona. In 1930 Trucco dissolved the company because he considered the direction given to production too commercial and in 1936 he definitively sold "La Fenice", still active, to Ernesto Daglio. In the 1930s he was appointed Representative of Small Industries and Provincial Head of the Community of Savona Ceramists. In 1933 he presented, obtaining a gold medal, some works created with the technique of cut out shapes and applied to the surfaces to be decorated at the Milan Triennale. In 1936 he was again present at the Milan Triennale and the following year he presented some ceramics at the Paris Exhibition. After having sold the "Fenice", Manlio Trucco opened a ceramic workshop called "Trucco Manlio Ceramiche d'Arte" in 1937, with the collaboration of his student Ida Brebbio Ziller and a potter, at his home in via Aurelia in Albisola. Capo (now Trucco Museum) where he dedicated himself almost exclusively to the production of unique pieces, some of which he presented in 1938 at the ENAPI exhibition in Rome. "Trucco Manlio Ceramiche d'Arte" ceased production in 1964 and since then Manlio Trucco has dedicated himself mainly to painting. He died in Genoa in 1974.
