Gino Parin (1876-1944)
Portrait of Necki Springer
Oil on canvas
ca. 1938
Collection of Necki Springer, Cottonwood, Arizona
Photograph courtesy of David Shaffer
Although Italy’s 1938 racial laws meant that Parin could no longer legally work for non-Jewish clients, he continued to create portraits of friends. His close relationship with Magda, Necki’s older sister, probably inspired him to create this portrait.
In the early 1950s, Necki immigrated from Trieste to the United States and eventually settled in Cottonwood. When Necki died in 2011, a collection of Gino’s and Magda’s paintings, previously in Magda’s possession, was passed to the Mongini family for caretaking.
In 2021, Patricia Mongini approached the Martin-Springer Institute and invited them to see the Cristo painting in Cotttonwood’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. Soon after, a NAU student-faculty team started to explore Parin’s life and work in the context of Europe’s artistic and political culture, from the turn of the 20th century to the Holocaust.