Primo Conti was born in Florence on October 16, 1900. At age eleven he painted his first picture, a self-portrait on cardboard; at thirteen he composed the musical work “Romanza for Violin and Piano.”
His first contacts with Soffici, Marinetti, Palazzeschi and Papini date back to 1913, on the occasion of the Futurist exhibition organized by “Lacerba.” The latter gives him a postcard with a dedication, “To the youngest and most intelligent visitor to the Futurist Exhibition.”
In 1917 he formed the Florentine Futurist Group with Baldessari, Ginna, Lega, Venna, Neri and Vieri Nannetti, Spina and Rosai. Between ’17 and ’21 he published a collection of poetic prose, “Bottling,” and came into contact with leading exponents of the historical avant-garde, including Picasso. He founded with Corrado Pavolini the magazine “Il Centone” (1919), on which Rosai and Lega also collaborated, and the “Enciclopedia,” a satirical pocket-size magazine considered a rare example of Italian Dada.
He participated in major 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: Child and Butterfly, Child with Rubber Rabbit, Portrait of Wife, Fruit from Above, Nudie.
From 1935 to 1939 he collaborated with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with set designs, 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 Florence Gallery (1942, 1943) and at the “Review of Fifty Years of Italian Painting” at the Barbaroux Gallery in Venez ia (1949).
In 1962 an exhibition was organized at Palazzo Strozzi to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his painting, and for his eightieth birthday a massive show was dedicated to him in the White Room of Palazzo Pitti.
In 1980 he published the book “Old Bicycle New” and in 1983, in the form of an interview with Gabriel Cacho Millet, his autobiography “The Blackbird’s Throat.”
He died in Fiesole on November 12, 1988. He rests in the chapel located on the Foundation grounds, next to his wife Munda Cripps (Feb. 7, 1913-Dec. 29, 2003).
