Giovanni Muro (g)-Giulia and Christina: Textile as Art-1977-1980

When Giulia had joined the Fortuny fabric company in early 1977 as an assistant curator ( see Giovanni Muro (c)), she had been interviewed by Christina Sanudo. Sanudo was retained for Fortuny by Elsie Lee McNeil (“Countess Gozzi”) on a part-time consultancy basis , both to advise on the cataloguing and maintenance of the extensive fabric and clothing archives and to also act in a general capacity with regard to Fortuny’s external dealings in the realms of art and museum culture. Despite her admiration and support for all that the tireless and unwaveringly committed Atalanta Bouboulis , Elsie’s chief of staff, was doing for the company, albeit in difficult circumstances,Sanudo had fended off repeated requests by Elsie and Atalanta to join Fortuny on a full-time basis ,ostensibly because she wanted to continue with her external interests ,largely in the areas of curating contemporary textile art and design exhibitions, that often had a strongly feminist agenda. But maybe there had also been something more than just that element of self-interest and desire for her own time by Christina ; maybe it was also a feeling that the company’s projection of Henriette’s role as “muse /seamstress” in the original Fortuny endeavour was inexact and anachronistic. In any event, as the work requirements of the role had increased it had been Christina who had counselled Atalanta that, despite the cost, Fortuny needed a full-time curatorial assistant and, later, who had recommended Giulia for the role. Christina was somewhat older than Giulia, and although her PhD in fine art had been on “Michele Giambono to Giovanni Bellini , the depiction of fabrics in Venetian painting, 1425- 1515” , which had been highly praised for the way in which she had applied her formidable knowledge of the surviving mercantile , legal and manufacturing records ( particularly following the edict of 1366 , relating to the quality of Zetanini and Cesellato fabrics) , to an analysis of the depiction of such fabrics in Venetian paintings of the period, she was these days an unwaveringly passionate advocate of the role of fabric and textile design in contemporary art and culture. Christina and Giulia shared an admiration for the work of Gunta Stolzl ( see Giovanni Muro (b)), and Christina quickly introduced Giulia to the work of the American “ Pattern and Decoration” movement, particularly that of Joyce Kozloff, and also artists who specialised in sculptural textile works , such as Claire Zeisler and Jagoda Buic. Closer to home Christina was a strong advocate of Alberto Burri’s use of sacking but was more circumspect regarding the Mappa and Arazzi fabric works of Alighiero Boetti, not primarily on the grounds of gender/ appropriation but because his work was so dependant on crafts women procured from the Royal College of Needlework in Kabul by his local fixer, Salman Ali, . These women not only both wove the design ( including using the demanding Bokhara couching stitch), but also seemingly in some cases added text and ,to an extent , determined the colour and formal balance of the pieces. While Christina accepted that Boetti was never covert about this method of production (and indeed openly gloated about its efficiency from his point of view), it felt to her to be a system of male and imperial hegemony. Christina and Giulia quickly established a strong and effective working relationship , but as the 1970’s drew to a close Christina’s life was coming under severe strain . First there were growing complexities in her marriage to Christoforo, her husband of 5 years; then apart from the day to day archival work, there was especial support needed for a large exhibition being planned for April-July 1980 at the Musee Historique Des Tissus de Lyon in France of Fortuny fabrics and clothes (that was to emphasise the technical achievements of Fortuny and his wife Henrietta ) , while simultaneously assisting with the preparation of a major re-assessment of Fortuny by the Spanish writer and gallerist Guillermo De Osma (that would also end up being published in 1980) . Finally, Christina was curating a survey of recent Italian fabric art, including work by Milli Gandini and Maria Lai , planned under the title “ Il filato, il trama e il tessuto”. At times it all seemed impossible and that the “decade of lead” would claim yet another victim. One Consequence of this was that evermore responsibility was to fall on Giulia . This in turn meant that she and Giovanni led somewhat separate lives, albeit under one roof. However, at the end of 1980 and having survived that year’s work challenges (indeed the Lyon show was deemed a particular success), and despite Christina’s questioning of some of his creative practices , Giulia bought Giovanni as a Christmas present a copy of Boetti’s book “Da Uno a Dieci” that had also been published that year , a gift that he warmly appreciated. This board contains various illustrations and works from this period, including the well-known “double portrait” of Christina and Christoforo by Stephen Chambers, based upon photographs of the two of them from around this time.