Pasolini pittore

More than 150 works, selected from the collection of the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieusseux in Florence, repository of the largest collection of works by the writer and director, but also from the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, the Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini in Casarsa, for the first time on show outside the local Casa Colussi, the Giuseppe Zigaina Archivio, as well as private collectors.

The exhibition starts from Pasolini's pictorial beginnings, which go hand in hand with his first poetic trials in Friulian. Portraits and depictions of bodies, both male and female, recreate a sort of visual mapping of Pasolini's family and friendships. Also present are still lifes and rural Friulian landscapes with a strongly intimist flavour that, from another point of view, the technical one, document the exceptional artistic skill and experimentation with pigment implemented by the young Pasolini.

An important section is dedicated to self-portraiture and portraiture, pictorial genres much loved by Pasolini, particularly the latter with what we might consider the 'portraits of the soul' on display. The family portraits - his cousin Nico Naldini, his mother Susanna, his cousin Franca - the series linked to the protagonists of Pasolini's artistic world - Giovanna Bemporad, Federico De Rocco, Giuseppe Zigaina - as well as those of the Roman film world - Laura Betti, Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli - with a special focus on the portraits of his friend and poet Andrea Zanzotto.

A separate focus concerns the portraits of three protagonists of Pasolini's cultural and artistic world: Ezra Pound, Roberto Longhi and Maria Callas, which give life to an 'exhibition within the exhibition', thanks to a careful reconstruction of the phases of realisation and Pasolini's creative and technical investment potential.

Another focus concerns the series of portraits of the historian and art critic Roberto Longhi, a Maestro recognised by Pasolini since his university years in Bologna. Later, the writer expressed his debt to Longhi by dedicating Mamma Roma (1962) to him and, more than 10 years later, his review for "Tempo" (8 January 1974) of Longhi's anthology of essays Da Cimabue a Morandi (Milan, Mondadori, 1973).

A special focus is dedicated to the artistic relationship and friendship between Pasolini and Fabio Mauri, with a series of Bolognese drawings from the 1940s-1950s, some of which are on show for the first time thanks to the collaboration with the Studio Fabio Mauri Associazione per l'Arte L' Esperimento del Mondo, essential documents of the determination of a friendship that is also a continuous exchange of ideas and styles.

A section of the exhibition is dedicated to the relationship between Pasolini and 20th-century Italian art, through the display of works from the contemporary art collections of the Sovrintendenza Capitolina (Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Museo Carlo Bilotti Aranciera Villa Borghese, Casa Museo Alberto Moravia, MACRO), with artists whose style Pasolini strongly appreciated - Carlo Carrà, Filippo de Pisis, Giorgio Morandi, Mario Mafai, Scipione and Antonietta Raphäel etc. - and other artists considered for their novelty and innovation. - and other artists considered for their aesthetic novelty in the mid-20th century Italian panorama. Such as Federico de Rocco, Franco Gentilini, Virgilio Guzzi, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi, Giacomo Manzù, Toti Scialoja, Lorenzo Tornabuoni, Renzo Vespignani, Giuseppe Zigaina, etc.

Exclusively from the family collection, a careful selection of contemporary works of art owned by Pier Paolo Pasolini is also on display for the first time, with the intention of emphasising how certain artistic and stylistic passions ran through Pasolini's life and painting, as well as his art writings and the rooms of his various Roman homes, with works by Massimo Campigli, Giorgio De Chirico, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi, Henry Matisse, Alberto Savinio, Andy Warhol, etc.

Closing the exhibition is a minimal homage to Pasolini's 'face', through a series of historical portraits made, in various styles and at different times, by Ennio Calabria, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi, Milo Manara, Mario Schifano and others.

The media counterpoint is provided by a series of photographs by Sandro Becchetti, Mimmo Cattarinich, Vittorugo Contino, Aldo Durazzi and Ezio Vitale, as well as documentaries and films granted by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, RAI Teche, RAI Cinema and Palomar, including: Carpaccio (1947), a short film by Roberto Longhi directed by Umberto Barbaro; Pier Paolo Pasolini. La Ragione di un sogno (2001), an exciting and poetic film by Laura Betti and Pasolini; Il Corpo e la Voce (2015), a documentary film by Maria Pia Ammirati, Arnaldo Colasanti and Paolo Marcellini.

A series of cultural encounters, readings and screenings are organised to accompany the exhibition, with the title "Pasoliniana. Intorno a Pasolini pittore", curated by Silvana Cirillo and Claudio Crescentini, which will take place at the Gallery of Modern Art. In this context, the Department of Letters and Modern Cultures of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, "Sapienza" University of Rome, is currently organising the "Progetto Pasolini" International Study Conference, curated by Silvana Cirillo and Claudio Crescentini, on the relationship between writing, painting and cinema.

Particular attention has been paid to accessibility: for the visually impaired, a dedicated itinerary has been designed in cooperation with the State Tactile Museum Omero in Ancona, equipped with relief drawings and audio descriptions. Free tactile tours, guided by specialised operators, are also available.