Alberto Savinio

Italian writer, painter, musician, journalist, essayist, playwright, set designer, composer and Nietzchean-inspired "proto-anarchist" associated with Dada and Surrealism, born. He was the younger brother of 'metaphysical' painter Giorgio De Chirico. He was influenced by and a contemporary of Apollinaire, Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob and Fernand Léger, and in turn was an important influence alongside Erik Satie on John Cage. Trying to differentiate himself from his increasingly famous artist-brother, Andrea adopted the penname Alberto Savinio in 1914, the same year he founded the musical movement Sincerismo (Sincerism). In 1915 he returned with his brother Giorgio back to Italy to enlist and ended up serving in the same military hospital as Carlo Carrà, where they formed the Schola Metafisica (Metaphysical School). Both he and his brother were denounced by the fascist press for their pro-European attitude during the early 1930s after both returned from a period spent in France. In 1943 he also had to go into hiding after being denounced as an anti-fascist.