Adolfo Busi: manifesti del fascismo italiano
Adolfo Busi (Bologna, 1891 - 1977) was an artist and graphic designer from Emilia-Romagna, known for his contribution to Italian illustration and advertising graphics in the early 20th century. He began his artistic career by studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where he developed a solid painting technique and a marked sense of composition. Influenced by the Art Nouveau style and Art Nouveau aesthetics, Busi distinguished himself early on with a refined and decorative approach, particularly in portraiture and applied art.
In the 1920s and 1930s he became a point of reference for Italian poster design, collaborating with Officine Grafiche Ricordi and producing advertising posters for important companies such as Campari, Borsari and Barilla. He also took part in several editions of the Venice Biennale in the same period, confirming his success on the national art scene.
Like many artists of the time, he entered the production circuit of the regime's visual propaganda, interpreting its aesthetic and communicative demands with a rich and ornamental style. Busi worked in a cultural context in which visual art was strictly controlled and directed towards political objectives, yet he found a space in this context to express his compositional and illustrative skills.
One of his most famous contributions in the field of fascist propaganda is related to the so-called “Battle of the Grain”, one of the main campaigns promoted by Mussolini to promote food self-sufficiency and strengthen national identity through agricultural work. The posters created by Busi for this initiative, in particular between 1928 and 1931, present an idealised and monumental vision of the rural world: robust men, golden ears of wheat, children eating white bread, all constructed in harmonious compositions that combine Art Deco style with the symbolism of the regime. Elements such as the fascio littorio, the tricolour flag and the tools of agricultural labour frequently recur and are placed at the centre of the visual narrative. These posters not only celebrate the value of work in the fields, but also turn agriculture into a patriotic gesture, an integral part of a project of national rebirth.
Another important area of Busi's propaganda production was the promotion of the Tripoli Fair, an event created to pay homage to the Italian colonial expansion in North Africa. Here too, the artist adopted a rich and decorative style, but with different subjects: exotic figures, palm trees, oriental markets and idealised landscapes, which contributed to constructing a sweetened colonial imagery, oscillating between exoticism and celebration of the alleged “civilising mission” of Fascist Italy.
A further significant commission was the Fiera Littoria in Bologna. In this context too, Busi demonstrated his ability to visually translate the principles of the regime: modernity, productivity, national strength. The poster created for the event combines idealised figures, fascist symbols such as the fascio littorio and the Italian flag, and references to the industrial and agricultural world, all orchestrated in an orderly and celebratory composition. The fair thus becomes not only a commercial showcase, but also an instrument of political propaganda, and Busi, with his unmistakable style, is one of its most effective interpreters.
In the vast repertoire of Adolfo Busi's graphic production, there is no lack of examples related to health propaganda, such as the poster dedicated to the tuberculosis stamp. This poster is part of the Italian National Fascist Federation's campaign against tuberculosis, a disease that the fascist regime considered a threat to public health and the nation's strength. The aim of the poster is to convey a clear message of collective responsibility and commitment to health prevention, elements in line with the fascist ideal of a vigorous and disciplined people. In this way, Busi expanded his Fascist visual imagery, also including social and health issues in his artistic repertoire, always with an elegant and decorative visual language, capable of influencing and persuading the public.
The relationship between Adolfo Busi and the Fascist regime lies on an ambiguous line: on the one hand, he was a visual instrument of state propaganda; on the other hand, he maintained a personal and recognisable style, capable of adapting to the regime's demands without completely renouncing his own expressive autonomy. His works today represent valuable evidence of the cultural and ideological climate of the time, as well as of the high level of graphic design achieved by Italian poster art between the two wars.
