Armando Pizzinato (Maniago, 7 October 1910 – Venice, 17 April 2004) was an Italian painter.

Biography

Armando Pizzinato was the elder son of Battista Pizzinato and Andremonda Astolfo. He started work at 15 to help his mother after the loss of his father. He made an apprenticeship with a house painter and later was employed in a local bank. Since childhood he had a passion for painting and drawing, and the purchase of the book ''

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...

'' by

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

(''The Lives'') played a large role in developing that passion even more. He was still a teenager when the manager of the bank arranged lessons for Armando with the painter Pio Rossi. Then, in 1930, thanks to the money he was earning, he could be enrolled in the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia The is a public tertiary academy of art in Venice, Italy. History The Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia was founded on 24 September 1750; the statute dates from 1756. The first director was Giovanni Battista Piazzetta; Gianbattista Tiepolo ...

(School of fine arts of Venice). Shortly later he got to know some of his contemporaries such as

Alberto Viani Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

Giulio Turcato Giulio Turcato (16 March 1912, Mantua – 22 January 1995, Rome) was an Italian artist, belonging to both figurative and abstract expressionist currents. Biography Giulio Turcato was born in Mantua. He attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venez ...

, Mario De Luigi,

Ferruccio Bortoluzzi Ferruccio Bortoluzzi (December 6, 1920 – May 25, 2007) was an Italian modern painter, he was one of the founders of the ''Centro di Unità della Cultura L'Arco'' together with venetian artists and writers. Biography Born in Venice in 1 ...

(in the 40s),

Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the tec ...

Afro Basaldella Afro Libio Basaldella (March 4, 1912 – July 24, 1976) was an Italian painter and educator in the post-World War II period. He began as a member of the Scuola Romana, and worked together with Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana. He was generally kn ...

and

Mirko Basaldella Mirko Basaldella (28 September 1910 – 24 November 1969) was an Italian sculptor and painter. Early life and education Mirko was born in Udine, Italy on September 28, 1910, the second of three brothers ( Dino was the eldest, and Afro the younge ...

. In 1933 he takes part with five paintings to the exhibition ''Cinque giovani pittori veneti'' (''Five young painters from Veneto'') in the Gallery ''Il Milione'' in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. In 1936 he obtains a Marangoni scholarship to go to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. In 1940 he is the winner of the second ''Premio Bergamo'' (''Bergamo award'') (National painting exhibition). In 1941 he marries Zaira Candiani, with whom he had a daughter, Patrizia, born 19 August 1943. Zaira will be a source of inspiration for many of Pizzinato's paintings. After Zaira's death in 1962 Pizzinato married his second wife, Clarice Allegrini. During

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Pizzinato was a socialist member of the

Italian resistance movement The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

, he was arrested by the

fascists Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

and imprisoned. After the war Pizzinato dedicates his life to art. He joins Italian

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

movements and participates, with

Emilio Vedova Emilio Vedova (9 August 1919 – 25 October 2006) was a modern Italian painter. He is considered one of the most important artists to emerge from Italy's artistic scene, Arte Informale. Early life Vedova was born in Venice into a working-c ...

and others, to the creation of the ''

Fronte Nuovo delle Arti Fronte Nuovo delle Arti was an Italian artistic movement active in Venice, Rome and Milan in the years following WWII (1946 to 1950). It is considered to be part of the post-cubism movement. History "Fronte Nuovo delle Arti" was founded in Septem ...

''. The ''Fronte'' movement made an exhibition at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 1948.

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with t ...

, who visited that exhibition, bought there the painting ''Primo maggio'' (in English: ''May Day'') of Pizzinato and later donated it to the

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, where it still is. In turn, Pizzinato donated to Peggy Guggenheim a couple of paintings, such as ''Cantieri'', still part of the

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the , an 18th-century palace, which was the home ...

. In those years he created, among other works, a

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

with

inspired by the Italian resistance. In 1949 works of Pizzinato were included by

Alfred Barr Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...

and

James Thrall Soby James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

in the exhibition ''20th Century Italian Art'' at the

. In 1950 the

Catherine Viviano Gallery Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

in New York included works by Pizzinato in the exhibition ''Five Italian Painters''. The same year, Pizzinato was invited at the ''1950 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting'' (Carnegie International in Pittsburgh). The painting ''Un fantasma percorre l'Europa'', which is considered as one of Pizzinato's masterpieces, is dated 1950 (exhibited in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro, Venice). From 1950 on he deliberately brought the themes of his paintings in line with his political beliefs (e.g. works entitled ''Terra non Guerra'', ''I difensori delle fabbricche'', ''Saldatori''). In 1952 he takes part to the exhibition ''Some contemporary Italian painters'' at the Crane Gallery in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. The same year he participates to the ''Congress of People for Peace'' in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1968 he makes a large exhibition in Germany, first at the ''Neue Berliner Galerie'' and then at the

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (, ''Dresden State Art Collections'') is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It is one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, originating from the ...

. A work of Pizzinato is also part of the

Verzocchi collection The Verzocchi collection or the Galleria Verzocchi - work in contemporary painting is a collection of over seventy 20th-century Italian paintings formed by the entrepreneur Giuseppe Verzocchi from 1949 to 1950. It contains only paintings of 90 by 7 ...

of the

Pinacoteca civica di Forlì The Pinacoteca Civica of Forlì, one of the civic museums of Forlì and currently based in the Musei di San Domenico, is an Italian art gallery. Artists whose work the gallery exhibits include: * Livio Agresti * Clemente Alberi * Beato Angelico ...

References

Bibliography

Virgilio Guidi Virgilio Guidi (April 4, 1891 – January 7, 1984) was an Italian artist and writer. He was born in Rome into an artistic family. His father was a sculptor.Cowling & Mundy 1990, p. 124. Guidi received his early training at the Scuola Libera ...

, ''Armando Pizzinato'', catalogo della mostra, Galleria del Milione, Milano, 1943 * Umbro Apollonio, "Armando Pizzinato", in Stefano Cairola (a cura di), ''Arte italiana del nostro tempo'', Istituto Italiano di Arti Grafiche, Bergamo, 1946 * Maurizio Chierici, "Al pittore veneziano Pizzinato il puledrino del 'Premio Suzzara'", in ''Gazzetta di Parma'', Parma, 15.9.1958 * Mario De Micheli, "Pizzinato: 30 anni di pittura", in ''L'Unità'', Milano, 1.9.1962, p. 6 * Franco Solmi, ''Immagini del Realismo. Pizzinato'', catalogo della mostra, Firenze, Galleria d'Arte Palazzo Vecchio, 1982 * Enzo De Martino, ''Armando Pizzinato. Opere dal 1949 al 1962'', catalogo della mostra, Museo di Capri, 1983 * Giancarlo Pauletto, ''Pizzinato al Museo di Pordenone'', catalogo della mostra, Edizioni Concordia, Pordenone, Museo Civico, 1983 * Giancarlo Pauletto, Luciano Padovese, ''Pizzinato a Maniago'', Centro Culturale A. Zanussi, Pordenone, 1984 * Marco Goldin, ''Pizzinato'', Electa, Milano, 1996 * Marzia Ratti, ''Armando Pizzinato. Dal Fronte Nuovo delle Arti ai Giardini di Zaira'', Silvana Editoriale, La Spezia, 2001 * Giancarlo Pauletto, Luciano Padovese, ''Armando Pizzinato'', Centro Culturale A. Zanussi, Pordenone, 2005,

External links

Biography of Armando Pizzinato in rogallery.com

Biography of Armando Pizzinato in arsvalue.com, including an extensive bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzinato, Armando 1910 births 2004 deaths People from the Province of Pordenone 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 21st-century Italian painters Modern painters Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia alumni 20th-century Italian male artists 21st-century Italian male artists