(Fondo Paolo Monti,
BEIC). In 1929, along with Carlo and Nello Rosselli he founded an
anti-fascist movement called
Giustizia e Libertà, becoming a leader of the Italian branch along with
Leone Ginzburg, a Russian Jew from
Odessa who had emigrated with his parents to Italy. He also joined with
Francesco Menzio in the "
Gruppo dei Sei" ("Group of six"), all painters in Turin, including
Jessie Boswell,
Gigi Chessa,
Nicola Galante and
Enrico Paulucci. As a result of his activism and involvement with anti-fascist movements, Levi was arrested and exiled to
Aliano (Gagliano in
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) and Grassano, two towns in a remote area of Italy called
Lucania (now
Basilicata) from 1935 to 1936. There he encountered a poverty almost unknown in prosperous northern Italy. While there, Levi worked on the side as one of the doctors for the villagers, although he had never practised medicine after graduating from medical school. During his exile he spent much of his time painting. After his release, he moved to France and lived there from 1939 to 1941. In 1941, he returned to Italy, and was later arrested again in
Florence and imprisoned in the Murate prison. He was released following
Benito Mussolini's arrest and sought refuge across the street from the
Pitti Palace, where he wrote
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli. The square there has been named after him. ,
Sicily After
World War II, he moved to Rome and from 1945 to 1946 he served as the editor of ''
L'Italia Libera'', the publication of the Partito d'Azione, an anti-fascist organization that grew out of the republican tradition. He continued to write and paint, exhibiting in Europe and the United States. His written works include ''L'Orologio
(The Watch
) (1950), Le parole sono pietre
(Words Are Stones
) (1955), and Il Futuro ha un Cuore Antico
(The Future has an Ancient Heart'') (1956). In 1963, he was elected to the Senate as an independent on the
Communist Party ticket; he was re-elected to the Senate in 1968 and served there until 1972. He died of
pneumonia in Rome on 4 January 1975. He is buried in
Aliano. The 'Persiana' Gallery in
Palermo exhibited his last work,
Apollo and Daphne, executed on a goatskin drum the day before he was admitted to hospital. == Works ==