Gino Agnese, biographer of Marinetti and Boccioni, has died

He was President of the Rome Quadrennial from 2002 to 2011, ensuring the Foundation’s new headquarters in Villa Carpegna, where the Library and Historical Archive are located. He was also councilor of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Scuderie del Quirinale, from 1998 to 2008. In 1982 he founded the international communication studies magazine “Mass Media”, which was published bimonthly for thirteen years. Not only Italian scholars wrote about Mass Media (Derrick de Kerckhove, Gianfranco Ravasi, Gillo Dorfles, Piero Buscaroli, John Eccles, Andrej Tarkovskij, Armand Mattelart, Luigi Accattoli, Renato Barilli, Guido Gili, Mario Costa, Roberto Grandi, Abraham Moles, Robert White and others). The magazine was the subject of degree theses and since 1992 it was embellished with “author’s covers”, created by famous artists: Alberto Burri, Antoni Tàpies, Bruno Munari, Kenneth Noland, Piero Dorazio, Giulio Turcato, Luigi Veronesi, Carla Accardi, Emil Schumacher and others. The works were collected in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.

In 1995, when the Internet was not yet widespread in Italy, he organized and directed for Alleanza Nazionale – he was director of Culture under the Presidency of Gianfranco Fini – the “Bit & Polis” conference in Montecitorio: a pioneering vision of how information technology and the internet were changing culture and politics. Agnese wrote “Parola di patriarch”, ten interviews with twentieth-century personalities, and many other essays, as well as collaborating on the writing of several volumes on Futurism and mass communication. He was awarded many awards. The Culture Prize, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in 1987; Tiber Prize, in 1990; Castiglioncello Award, in 1991; “Il Pane” Award, in 1993; Hemingway Award, in 1997; National Rhegium Julii Award, in 1997; Procida Prize for Culture, in 1997. In 1988 Agnese was part of the jury of the Chianciano Literary Prize and from 1989 she was on that of the Basilicata Literary Prize. He passed away in his home in Rome, leaving behind his wife Rosanna, his brother Vincenzo, together with other family members and friends. The funeral will take place on Monday 30th at 3pm at the Church of the Holy Guardian Angels, in the Montesacro district of Rome.