antonio ligabue, "primitive" painter - palazzo comunale, sala delle colonne - pontassieve, florence

From 14th December to 7th June in the Sala delle Colonne, at the Palazzo Comunale, right in the heart of the city on the banks of the river Sieve. Antonio Ligabue was born in Switzerland in 1899 from an Italian mother and died in 1965 after a wild, tormented life lived in the countryside of Padania, in and out of psychiatric hospital wards. Gifted with a completely natural talent, his painting was hyperreal and hallucinatory, while he also created sculptures.

The exhibition has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the Antonio Ligabue Study and Archive Centre in Parma. The works on show at Pontassieve represent one of the most common themes in this artist’s work: wild animals, proud felines. However, Ligabue is also known for his many self portraits and three of these are visible, with their garish colours and intense expressions.

Ligabue has been defined by some critics as one of the great “primitivists” of modern painting, while others consider him to be a tragic expressionist. For Vittorio Sgarbi he is the greatest popular national painter of modern times.

The whirlwind of colours and tragic scenes on show to visitors in the Pontassieve exhibition is undoubtedly an occasion not to be missed.