Primo Conti was born in Florence on October 16, 1900. At eleven, he painted his first picture, a self-portrait on cardboard; at thirteen, he composed the musical work "Romance for Violin and Piano."
His first contacts with Soffici, Marinetti, Palazzeschi, and Papini date back to 1913, during the Futurist exhibition organized by "Lacerba." The latter gave him a postcard with the dedication: "To the youngest and most intelligent visitor to the Futurist Exhibition."
In 1917, together with Baldessari, Ginna, Lega, Venna, Neri and Vieri Nannetti, Spina, and Rosai, he founded the Florentine Futurist Group. Between 17 and 21, he published a collection of poetic prose, “Imbottigliature,” and came into contact with leading exponents of the historical avant-garde, including Picasso. With Corrado Pavolini, he founded the magazine “Il Centone” (1919), to which Rosai and Lega also contributed, and the “Enciclopedia,” a pocket-sized satirical magazine considered a rare example of Italian Dada.
He participated in the main Futurist exhibitions in Italy and abroad; in 1928, invited by Margherita Sarfatti, he exhibited the "Portrait of Pirandello" at the second Exhibition of the Twentieth Century.
In 1930, he married Munda Cripps. Family life, with the birth of his two daughters, inspired a series of works rich in personal and poetic content: Little Girl and Butterfly, Little Girl with a Rubber Rabbit, Portrait of His Wife, Fruit from Above, and Nude.
From 1935 to 1939 he collaborated with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with sets, sketches and costumes.
In 1941 he held the chair of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
He exhibited with De Chirico at the Galleria Firenze (1942, 1943) and on the occasion of the “Review of fifty years of Italian painting” at the Galleria Barbaroux in Venice (1949).
In 1962, an exhibition was organized at Palazzo Strozzi to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his painting, and for his eightieth birthday, a major exhibition was dedicated to him in the Sala Bianca of Palazzo Pitti.
In 1980 he published the book “Vecchia bicicletta nuova” and in 1983, in the form of an interview with Gabriel Cacho Millet, his autobiography “La gola del merlo”.
He died in Fiesole on 12 November 1988. He rests in the chapel located in the park of the Foundation, next to his wife Munda Cripps (7 February 1913 – 29 December 2003).
