Fondazione Primo Conti (Casa-Museo)

Painter Primo Conti, who encountered Futurism as a teenager, made Villa Le Coste both his family home and an archive. The house museum presents 66 paintings and 163 drawings from 1911 to 1985; Conti is buried beside his wife in the garden chapel.

Why it matters

The museum offers a view of the Italian avant-garde through the life and work of a Fiesole-based artist. Conti encountered the Futurist circle in 1913 and co-founded the Florentine Futurist Group in 1917. The foundation also serves as the Centro di Documentazione e Ricerche sulle Avanguardie Storiche, preserving his archive and library.

What to notice

The paintings follow Conti’s career from early work in 1911 through his Futurist period, portraits and decorative projects to works from 1985. They include his portrait of Luigi Pirandello and portraits of his wife Munda, whom he married in 1930. The terraced garden includes the family chapel where Conti and Munda are buried.

Context and history

Born in Florence on 16 October 1900, Conti was recognized as a precocious artist during the Futurist years. In 1917 he co-founded the Florentine Futurist Group and produced experimental prose and satirical journals, including the pocket-sized Enciclopedia. His later career included work for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino from 1935 to 1939, a teaching post at Florence’s Accademia di Belle Arti from 1941, and retrospectives at Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Pitti. Villa Le Coste, his home from the mid-twentieth century, became the foundation’s seat and a centre for research on the historical avant-gardes.