Liana Bortolon (1923–2020)

Liana Bortolon was born in Feltre, Italy, a daughter of Teresa (Sernaglia) and Aldo Bortolon. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at the Catholic University of Milan. In July 1943, during World War II, she returned to her hometown and participated in the anti-fascist resistance. On June 19, 1944, she witnessed the "Notte di Santa Marina," a Nazi massacre of locals in retaliation for a prison breakout conducted by the Italian partisans. After the war, she returned to Milan and graduated in 1947 with a degree in Modern Literature with a thesis on the Baroque Age. Until 1955, she worked with the Catholic newspaper L'Italia, which in 1968 would merge into Avvenire. She went to work for the Vita e Pensiero publishing house, and from 1957 to 1959, had an art criticism column in the magazine Gente. In 1960, Bortolon joined the editorial staff of Grazia magazine, where she remained until 1993 as writer and editor. For Grazia, she wrote more than 800 articles on art, interviews, reviews, and correspondence from London, New York, Paris, and San Francisco. She was one of the first art critics to discuss not only the work, but also the artist's life and motivations. She was also the first to focus on female art at a time when most full-time female artists were being ignored. As a writer/editor for a mass-circulation women's weekly, she had the opportunity to speak to a large female audience outside the world of museums and galleries. Her books ranged from the Life and Times of Raphael, Leonardo, and Titian, to Maestri Italiani Del Novecento (Italian Masters of the 1900s, 1971). After her retirement, she donated her personal library of about 3,000 books and her correspondence to her alma mater, the Catholic University of Milan, and 100 works of art to the city of Feltre for the Galleria Carlo Rizzarda. She was the subject of the award-winning 2021 documentary Liana Bortolon: Alla Scoperta dell Arte (Discovering Art).