All The 'ism' of Armando Testa

Armando Testa (23 March 1917 – 20 March 1992) was an Italian graphic designer, cartoonist, animator and painter.
Born in Turin, Testa worked as a typesetter until 20 years old. He was initiated to artistic career by abstract painter Ezio D'Errico, who was one of his professors at the Vigliardi-Paravia Printing School he attended. After winning a poster design contest in 1937, he started working in the advertising industry, and in 1946 abandoned his work as a printer and opened a graphic studio in his hometown. In 1956, he founded Studio Armando Testa along with his wife, Lidia, and associate Franco de Barberis, and their studio soon became one of Italy's largest agencies, partnering with Benton & Bowles in the United States and establishing several branches throughout Europe. A key role in Testa's success had television commercials, particularly the ones created for Carosello. In 1959 he created the official logo for 1960 Summer Olympics. Studio Armando Testa's customers include Nestlé, Lavazza and Barilla.
Starting from the mid-1980s, Testa focused on painting and on poster design for cultural and social campaigns. In 1985 he was appointed honor laureate in Fort Collins, Colorado

 

17 years have passed since the last exhibition dedicated to Armando Testa hosted in his hometown,  Turin. Now from 25 October to 24 February in Palazzo Chiablese is holding, an exhibition with its creations, thanks to the curatorship of Gemma De Angelis Testa and Gianfranco Maraniello who have selected 120 works including sculptures, drawings and illustrations. With "All the Isms of Armando Testa", Turin celebrates the artistic production of Testa, three years after the placement of "Sintesi '59", sculpture that stands in front of the Porta Susa station.

 

In the exhibition at Palazzo Chiablese, there are that of advertising and carousels, with logos that have made history like that of Punt and Mes. But there are also the characters that have become famous beyond the product they have advertised, like the hippo Pippo della Lines, or Carmencita and Caballero of Caffè Paulista di Lavazza, but also the spherical and proverbial extraterrestrials of the Papalla Planet, created for Philco. A true "cultural landscape", as explained during the presentation, which also built an imaginary for some generations of Italians.

 

But Armando Testa's passion for visual art does not end here. Because in the exhibition some works appear related to a purely artistic production, linked to real iconographic experimentation. And the sources, in fact, come from futurism and surrealism. The "isms" of Armando Testa are also these and he said it himself, in an interview that appears in a video at the beginning of the exhibition, while commenting on the refusal of a customer to a proposal too risky. "Il Testa - he says - sometimes has good things in the" isms ", so we call all modernisms. But maybe it's better, every now and then, to look more at marketing ".