Antonio Ligabue: two exhibitions in Bologna

It is a double date that lovers of the famous painter Ligabue will find in Bologna in the coming months. The artist will, in fact, be the undisputed protagonist of the upcoming cultural season as the focus of no less than two exhibitions in the heart of Bologna’s historic city centre.

The first, produced and curated by Arthemisia, Francesco Negri and Francesca Villanti, on stage from 21 September to 30 March, will see Palazzo Albergati, and its splendid rooms, host the visionary masterpieces of this tormented artistic prodigy, recounting how art was for him a cure and communicative expression as well as a shelter from the evils of the world.

The second exhibition, on the other hand, from 3 October to 28 February, will see over 120 works including paintings, sculptures, engravings and drawings on display at Palazzo Pallavicini. It will be organised by, among others, Chiara Campagnoli, Deborah Petroni and Rubens Fogacci. Here too, the protagonist of the scene will be the tormented story of this fascinating 20th century artistic prodigy.

Indeed, it is impossible to dissociate Antonio Ligabue’s work from his difficult condition of social exile and his desire for redemption for a life lived on the margins, both as an individual and as an artist. Excluded from his people, in fact, the painter linked himself and his art to the natural and animal world, giving posterity masterpieces of rare intensity, which still today elevate him to one of the most important exponents of Italian culture of the last century.

Suffering from rickets and a precarious state of health, little inclined to study and with a difficult character, his artistic vision is strongly linked to the territory of Emilia: to the Po valleys, where he soon took refuge, and to Renato Marino Mazzacurati, an artist from Parma who, starting in 1928, first understood his artistic gifts, thus prompting him to cure his psycho-physical anxieties through painting and sculpture: the only worlds in which his genius seemed to find shelter and relief from the torments of life. It is therefore a natural tribute that the capital of Emilia is preparing to pay him through two exhibitions that seem absolutely unmissable.

Ph: Illustra ciencia, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Flickr – This photo is an excerpt of the original