TRACCE DI PAROLE.

Anita Pittoni (1901–1982) was an artist, fashion designer, poet, writer and publisher active in Trieste between the 1920s and the 1970s.

Trained between tailoring, applied arts and avant-garde experimentation, after high school she developed her own research in textiles and fashion, coming into contact with the city’s most innovative circles also through the photographic studio of the Wulz sisters.

In 1928 she opened the Studio d’Arte Decorativa in Trieste, a home-atelier where clothing, accessories, furnishings, tapestries and carpets were created using both traditional and innovative materials. Influenced by Futurism, Constructivism, Cubism and the avant-gardes of Central Europe, her research also extended to painting and theatre.

Her atelier became a pivotal centre of Trieste’s cultural life, frequented by Umberto Saba, Virgilio Giotti, Marcello Mascherini, Giani Stuparich (her partner) and, later, young figures such as Claudio Magris. In dialogue with personalities such as Gio Ponti, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Fortunato Depero and Enrico Prampolini, Pittoni took part in the main international exhibitions of decorative arts and design: from the Triennials of Monza and Milan to the Venice Biennale, up to the 1937 Paris Universal Exposition, where she won the Grand Prix.

From the post-war period she devoted herself increasingly to writing and publishing, founding in 1949 the Edizioni dello Zibaldone, active until the mid-1970s and a reference point for Trieste’s cultural landscape. Her work represents a crucial nexus between avant-garde, craftsmanship and literary culture in 20th-century Trieste.

Brief bibliography of Anita Pittoni

• Passeggiata armata. Trieste, Edizioni dello Zibaldone, 1971
• El passeto. Racconto in dialetto triestino, Trieste, M. Bolaffio, 1977
• Diario 1944-1945. Trieste, SVSB, 2012
• La scala a chiocciola: Anita Pittoni - Ugo Pierri, lettere 1966-1979. a cura di R. Cepach, Trieste, Battello, 2017
• Penso a te che sei tutt’uno con la poesia di tuo padre: lettere inedite di Anita Pittoni e Linuccia Saba (1957-1966). a cura di G. Norio e R. Benedetti, Macerata, Bibliohaus, 2020
• Anita Pittoni, straccetti d’arte: stoffe di arredamento e moda di eccezione. a cura di Marilì Cammarata, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 1999
• Far libri. Anita Pittoni e lo Zibaldone. Trieste, Parnaso, 1995
• Anita Pittoni Un’artista tra futurismo, avanguardie e modernità. Collana d’Arte della Fondazione CRTrieste, 2022

• Places where Anita Pittoni lived and worked.
• Cultural venues connected to her activity.
• Archives and collections preserving documents and works.