COVER ANNI 40-50

THE 40s AND 50s 

The works from these decades are the first evidences which have been kept from Pietro Ghizzardi’s pictorial activity. This started already in the 30s, but was almost completely lost, concerning that period, both because of the various moving that his tenant farmers family went through and because of the contrasts with his brother Marino, who was always strongly against his sibling’s artistic practice, which he saw as time taken away from the work in the fields.

Regarding his first pictorial experiences the following can be read in Mi richordo anchora, the artist’s autobiography:

and then in 1929 I devoted myself to painting
I did drawings of my invention I did practice about how the eye the mouth the nose the ears and the chin are shaped but mostly I paid attention to the eyes
and then in 1930 I started defining the features of the person
(…)

The paintings from this period, painted on raw cardboard boxes for nails, are realised with colours extracted from the earth, animal blood, soot from the fireplace, herbs, in particular romza (medical herb used as fixative).  The dominant tones are dark, lead gray, while the subjects are most diverse: common men and women – some he could observe every day – next to historical and political figures, saints and holy subjects.

At the same time Ghizzardi introduces into his works the collage technique: the faces of many subjects – almost all of them are women – are those of divas of the Italian cinema and American stars, but also those taken from the first advertising graphics and from photo story books. This inserts, which refer to the popular culture of the time, penetrate normally chaotic and crawded compositions, where perspectives intersect and lay one on top of the other, in a multiplicity of parallel levels.

Painting is Pietro Ghizzardi’s great passion: the pictorial practice is carried out almost in secret, hidden from his relatives. Yet the artist is aware of the esthetic value of his work – despite the numerous detractors – and hangs frequently some of his cardboards on the windows of his bedroom and on the sides of his bicycle, displaying them to the public.

Anni 40 Anni 40 Anni 40


Anni 40 Anni 40 Anni 40


Anni 40 Anni 40 Anni 40


Anni 40 Anni 40

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