THE 60s
In the 60s, when he was almost 60 years old, Pietro Ghizzardi obtains recognition from the public and the critics and he makes painting his “job”.
In 1961 he receives the first official recognition at the art exhibition ‘City of Guastalla’ – one of his artworks is awarded the gold medal.
In 1968, at the national Naïve exhibition ‘City of Luzzara’, he receives the golden medal from the President of the Republic. Pietro is well-known by now, loved and respected, but he stays the same: he doesn’t change neither his character nor his clothing and he continues to paint in his little house, which he renames “the little gallery”: he paints in the kitchen, kneeling on the floor.
Graphic is a parallel route in his production: in the same year he is awarded the gold medal at the international exhibition of contemporary graphics in Vignola. The art critics, and not only them, start noticing him.
In 1969 he paints the cycle of frescoes in the Villa Soliani-Pini (Casa Falugi), a hunting residence built at the end of the 18th century, the so called ‘Sistine Chapel’ of the Bassa, as it was defined by Cesare Zavattini.
The mark remains the most important feature of Ghizzardi’s painting: a brushstroke that engraves and furrows the faces, the imposing and plump body masses of voracious feminine figures, those of noble and decent looking men and those of animals, especially wild ones.
