Ezio Bassani 1924–2018 Bassani
AFTER A BRIEF ILLNESS, Ezio Bassani, the doyen of Italian
Africanists, left us on a hot morning in the beginning of August
148
2018. He was about to reach his ninety-fourth birthday.
He was tired but alert, and he was still working on a concept
for a new exhibition a few days before his death. To the very
end Bassani stayed true to himself: passionate, engaged, intransigent,
and a “partisan” of the universal values that the
African continent’s artistic expressions manifest.
Bassani had been a real partisan long ago when he joined
the resistance against fascism and Nazism in the later years of
WWII. As he fought side by side with other young combatants
in the mountains, he dreamed of a better future for Italy.
In these dramatic circumstances he met Edmea, also a partisan,
who became his wife, his muse, and his partner for seventy
years. He had not yet fallen in love with African art, but
this experience forged his character and shaped his nature.
After the war, Bassani frequented a milieu of artists, and
through them, almost by accident, he discovered African art.
It was love at fi rst sight—a total and all but physical passion
was born in him. Self-taught, he did what he could to
learn about the fi eld in Italy, though it was practically unknown
there. He studied, made observations and mistakes,
and progressed until he found his path. The chance he had
been waiting for was offered to him in the 1970s by noted art
critic Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, who opened the doors of
the International University of Florence to him and oriented
him toward the history of public and private collections, particularly
the older and established ones.
Bassani seized this opportunity and became a recognized
expert appreciated by others who shared a passion for the
art—especially those who believed as he did that anthropological
research could be complemented with the identifi cation
of masters, accurate historical knowledge, and a hierarchic
classifi cation of works. This seems obvious today, but it
was a perspective not shared by many at the time.
The history of African art ultimately proved Bassani correct,
and his revenge on his critics lay in the success he gained
through organizing major exhibitions. There isn’t space here to
mention them all, but La grande scultura dell’Africa nera (The
Major Sculpture of Black Africa) (Florence, 1989), Le grand
Héritage (The Great Heritage) (Paris, 1992), and Africa, capolavori
da un continente (Africa, Masterpieces of a Continent)
(Turin, 2003) were among the most important of them.
As an associate curator at the Museo delle Culture (MUDEC)
in Milan, he contributed to the development of the museum’s
2015 inaugural exhibition, Africa. La terra degli spiriti
(Africa, the Land of the Spirits). As signifi cant as they were,
Bassani never derived real satisfaction from these achievements
because his demanding nature always focused on what he saw
as their shortcomings. The distinction and recognition he received
when he “played outside” were a greater source of joy
to him. He was a realist and knew how much the relations,
the origins, the institutions, and the countries he worked in
counted. He was especially proud to have participated in the
preparation of Primitivism in the 20th Century Art (New York,
1985), to have organized the Africa section for the Circa 1492
show (Washington, 1992), and to have helped select the works
on view in the Pavillon des Sessions at the Louvre.
Lastly, let us not forget the writings of a man who was a pioneer
in areas of research that have now become established. He
was the author of works on Afro-Portuguese ivories, African
works in old European collections, and the identifi cation of
“master hands,” to mention but a few.
Bassani’s work furthered our appreciation of African art. He
recognized that the evolution of the fi eld owed a debt to the
researchers who worked in it, the dealers who promoted it, and
the collectors who preserved it. He attached equal importance
to each of these precious and irreplaceable sources.
Antonio Aimi and Gigi Pezzoli
IN TRIBUTE