Painter, writer, and composer Primo Conti was born in Florence on 16 October 1900. A precocious Futurist, by age 13 Conti published musical compositions and exhibited paintings with Umberto Boccioni and Ardengo Soffici. By age 17 Conti had made numerous contributions to L’Italia futurista, of which he became editor. After World War I, Conti’s literary interests were reflected in his periodicals Il centone (1919) and L’enciclopedia(1920-23). Family life, with marriage in 1931 followed by the birth of two daughters, inspired a number of works rich in personal and poetic content.
Official recognition in the later 1930s culminated in a professorship (1941) at the Florentine Accademia di Belle Arti. Long before it enjoyed a popular resurgence, Conti revisited Futurism. In 1979 Conti established the Centro Documentario avanguardie Storiche, Fondazione Primo Conti in Fiesole to house his collection and archive of the Italian avant-garde.