“Philippe Daverio saw the art world as a paradise of innocence”: Vittorio Sgarbi’s memory in FqMagazine

“He was the most significant art historian of the last 25 years.” Vittorio Sgarbi greets him, reminding him of the FQ Magazine, Philippe Daverio He died last night at the age of 71 after a long illness. Extravagant bow tie, round glasses and a lively and penetrating speech, Daverio had become famous to the general public for the behavior of Passepartout, the colloquial and direct broadcast on all art forms present in Italy, broadcast on Rai3 (later replicated in the digital age on Rai5) from 2001 to 2011. Daverio recorded his insightful considerations and reflections as Indian arrows from studying his houses in Milan and Capalbio then expanded, as a whole, from several historic Italian houses.

Brilliant considerations from his scholarly friend more than anonymous lectures dropped from the heights of the chairs, Daverio had managed to create a kind of direct line with the spectator who at lunchtime on Sunday was captivated and haunted by his paths in the streets of art . Italian, like a storyteller at the entrance to the cave of dreams. Born in 1949 in the Alsatian town of Mulhouse, on the centuries-long disputed border between France and Germany, a stern French mother and an Italian father, Daverio had a kind of 19th century encyclopedic training which resulted in studies (but no degree) at Bocconi in Milan. However, it was in the 1960s that he discovered and was impressed by art. He then became a gallery owner and in 1975 he opened his first gallery on via Montenapoleone in Milan with examples of the avant-garde from the early 20th century hanging on the walls. In 1986 he played New York, but it was in Milan where he concentrated his passion and his activity as a cultural organizer (in 1989 he opened another gallery in Corso Italia). In 1993 he accepted the Department of Education and Culture of the Milan City Council suddenly conquered by the Junta of the Northern League of Mayor Formentini.

Aunt controversies and provocations by the Daverio council in a council that, to stay standing, also collected the votes of the then PDS in its last months. In 1997, once his mandate ended, Daverio ceded the political sphere (only in 2009 was he unsuccessfully re-elected to the provincials in the PD by Filippo Penati) and it is in the world of television where he finds his natural and winning position with Passpartout. “In an art world divided by gangs, with a greedy and militant art critic, Daverio represented a dimension that is not biased but illustrative”, Sgarbi explains to FQ Magazine. “He did not have an ideological or political position, but the great merit of being an art historian at the service of the people, while the powerful Celant, Calvesi and Bonito Oliva lived in a stratosphere far from the town. Daverio saw the art world as a paradise of innocence. He was a fun, cheerful, pleasant, serious and respectful person, a lover of paradox. The difference is here. Although at the death of Calvesi, Celant, Bonito Oliva, no Bonito Oliva is still alive, it was a matter of care for just over a thousand people, in these hours hundreds of thousands of people remember Daverio”.

Philippe called himself an anthropologist. While training Crucca had imported from the Anglo-Saxon world a way of disseminating art on television where the artistic manifestation was inserted and told in its rich and detailed historical context “, he recalls Massimo Negri, professor and scholar, but above all friend of Daverio, FQ Magazine. “There is that gesture in which he enters or leaves the frame, before or after the sequence to be recorded. It’s something he must have invented because Philippe already had that physique du role as a child. At the age of 20 in 1968 he was already wearing a vest and bow tie during the demonstrations. Of course, at the educational level it was not systematic, He was self-taught, but he knew how to speak to the public a bit like eating. He had polished expressions and could be difficult at times, but people often understood something and were passionate about it. Did you know that people stopped him on the street or even at Autogrill, people from all walks of life and they weren’t astonished? ”.