Andrea Pazienza arrives in the temple of contemporary art, a monumental exhibition at the MAXXI

Just before die on June 16, 1988, at just 32 years oldin a long interview given to the famous British radio and television host Clive Griffiths, Andrea Pazienza he said a phrase that would soon take on a prophetic meaning: “you don’t always die”. A statement that applies to a artist capable of living with extraordinary intensityand for his workswhich continue to be alive and speak to the hearts of the public.

Precisely this phrase was chosen for the most important and broad show of the works of cartoonist of San Benedetto del Tronto, ‘Andrea Pazienza. You don’t always die‘, the care of Giulia Ferracci e Oscar Gliotiin program already MAXXI of Rome from tomorrow to September 27th, as part of the promotion of the artists who have marked the culture of the Italian twentieth century and anticipated many of the questions that the21st century art still arises today.

“This exhibition follows the exhibition that was inaugurated in L’Aquila, again by MAXXI, which lasted several months – Oscar Glioti explains to AGI – in L’Aquila the objective of the exhibition was to understand how Andrea Pazienza had become Andrea Pazienza, that is, everything that had made him the author who began to publish books comic books that have changed forever history of this expressive medium. Here in Rome, however, the exhibition is focused above all on Andrea Pazienzaauthor who published the comics.”

The exhibition itinerary and the exceptional findings

“The journey goes from 1977 to 1988 – explains the curator of the exhibition – it is about ten years or so that revolutionized the potential of this means of expression. In particular, this exhibition is the largest and most complete there has ever been on Andrea Pazienza, not only due to the size of the exhibited worksbut also for some exceptional ones findings which had never been exhibited before in public, or at least to the general public. In particular there is, for example, the entire first story of Zanardi exposed which isSchool mystery“‘, explains Glioti again. Then “there is the mural in Naples which was inaccessible and becomes accessible to the public even after this exhibition”.

The monumental mural and the stages of his career

It is among the most anticipated works of the exhibition, the wall-mounted which Pazienza created live in 1987, in just three hours, at Overseas Exhibitionduring the fourth Comic Fair. Monumental work – eight meters long and two and a half meters high – which depicts a huntinga fight between warriors and animals, set in classical antiquity which Pazienza was passionate about at that historical moment. The exhibition itinerary covers the entire career of Andrea Pazienza, from his formative years to his latest works – developing for thematic rooms and by colors.

Unpublished works and current affairs of a genius

“There are so many unpublished which have come out – explains Glioti – which testify to the fact that Andrea Pazienza is as if he had never left us, because the works he created, the masterpieces that we all know, read today have not lost a comma of theirs actuality”.

“The fact that, thanks to his generosity, he continually gave away works, dedications, drawings – he continues – is the reason why these unpublished drawings they continue to come out and when they come out they are incredibly current, as if they had been created by an author who is still active. This testifies to the fact that the graphic intuitionshis writing ability, but above all his great ability to listen to what was there spirit of the times in which he created his works, but also to project them into a future which is the one we live in today, is something that very few authors have managed to do and which means that, in some way, Andrea Pazienza is still with us”, he concludes.

Astarte and the iconic characters on display

Among the works on display, also the intense one History of Astartewhich remained incomplete due to his death. Exhibited for the first time in a museum contextthanks to an intervention by restoration financed by MAXXI and aimed at its valorisation, this masterpiece confirms the greatness of Pazienza not only as a cartoonist and illustrator, but as all-round artist. At the center of the exhibition there is a nucleus of beyond five hundred comic stripsanimated by the faces of the iconic “comic rock star” characters: Pentothalthe character through which the artist’s genius was revealed to the world; Zanardithe high school student who Pazienza has constructed as the embodiment of 1980s cynicism.

ThereforePertinithe beloved “missionary partisan President”; Pompeo the artistic testament of Pazienza, in which the perfect sublimation takes place between the author and his creature. Many others are on display along the way minor characterswhich make up an exceptional human sample: masks that reveal, caricatures that impact, confessions that do not ask for indulgence.

The relationship between word and image

In this second chapter, the rhythm of the exhibition is given by the relationship between word and image. Pencil sketches, studies, color illustrations and plates showing all the graphic expertise of the author, are intertwined with notes, poems, private letters and prose of all kinds.

To complete the picture, a vast selection of archival materialsincluding photographs, Super 8 films and audio recordings, up to the reproductions of works whose originals are missing, or which it has not been possible to show, which restore the community and subversive context in which Pazienza’s works were conceived.