Alessandro Masetti, “Architettura Corale. Giovanni Michelucci e Gualtiero Nativi nell’esperienza progettuale del Caffè Donnini”,
in #Nativi100, edited by Giovanna Uzzani, Gli Ori, 2021, pp. 80–87.
The #Nativi100 catalogue, edited by Giovanna Uzzani and published by Gli Ori in 2021, accompanied the exhibition held at Palazzo Fabroni, Museo del Novecento e del Contemporaneo in Pistoia, to mark the centenary of the birth of artist Gualtiero Nativi (1921–1999). Conceived as an extensive and updated monograph on the artist, the volume traces Nativi’s artistic development from the 1940s to maturity, while also examining the relationship with Giovanni Michelucci and the integration of painting into architectural space.
The essay
The #Nativi100 exhibition opened with an interpretive reconstruction of Caffè Donnini’s tea room in Florence, designed by Michelucci in 1949, featuring a pictorial intervention by Nativi. My contribution, Architettura Corale. Giovanni Michelucci e Gualtiero Nativi nell’esperienza progettuale del Caffè Donnini, focuses on this collaborative experience. The essay begins with their encounter at the Seconda Mostra di Arte d’Oggi in 1948, when Michelucci recognised a strong affinity with the work of the young artists associated with Astrattismo Classico and began publicly supporting their research.
Caffè Donnini thus emerges as an example of Michelucci’s conception of architecture as a practice developed through dialogue with the arts. Within the architect’s spatial framework, Nativi introduced large painted panels that altered the perception of the interior and established continuity between painting and architectural space.
The essay also reconstructs the furnishings designed for the café, focusing on the different versions of the Scapolare chair and on the relationship between design and craftsmanship that characterised Michelucci’s work during those years.
The final section also considers the project in light of its mixed reception. Despite the difficulties encountered by the new interior, the Caffè Donnini experience marked a significant moment in the collaboration between Michelucci and Nativi and contributed to the development of the artist’s investigation into how painting could engage with public space.