Pasolini for painting, painters for Pasolini

A 1979 exhibition to remember the poet who tragically passed away a few years earlier

Francesco Sirleto – January 25, 2022

This morning, on a dusty and forgotten shelf in my home library, I found an old catalogue from 1979, relating to an exhibition of painters working in Rome who, with their works, wanted to remember the poet who had tragically passed away a few years earlier.

The exhibition was organized by an old and now deceased friend of mine, Aldo Incitti, manager of the "Il Babuino" art gallery on the street of the same name in central Rome. Among the painters, highly regarded at the time, are Diana, Ferranti, Ferrari, Fleres, Fortunato, Mathieu, Micheli, Pernice, and Turco.

The works on display, and photographed in the catalogue, are almost all in black and white and possess a heightened dramatic impact, all harking back to the violent death of the director of Accattone and Mamma Roma in a squalid open space at the Idroscalo in Ostia on the night of 2 November 1975.

The catalogue also includes some of Pasolini's writings on art, and in particular on painting, which he was in love with since childhood and which he always considered an activity in which he could have a future.

A very interesting piece is his 1947 presentation for the exhibition "Triveneta del ritratto" (Triveneto Portraiture). In this piece, the young Pasolini provides a broad overview of painting in Veneto and Friuli, referencing the works of painters such as Zigaina, Afro, De Pisis, Velenzin, Toniutti, Mirri, and others.

In the catalogue we also find a poem by Pier Paolo dedicated to an exhibition of paintings by Carlo Levi, entitled “Melopea per Levi”, a poem in which the “solarity” and the luminosity of Levi's colours are exalted, who is compared to a sun.

“that shines on the cemeteries/ and waits patiently/ for the dead to awaken,/ which will certainly happen;/ a dawn sun,/ the one the porters of the General Markets see,/ that is already there/ waiting,/ an old dreaming sun,/ lost in the memory/ of thousands of dawns past,/ indifferent to the fact that everyone is asleep …/”.

Pasolini maintained a strong and enduring friendship with the Friulian painter Giuseppe Zigaina throughout his life, evident in the many introductions he signed to the artist's exhibition catalogs. Of Zigaina and his art, Pasolini wrote in 1970: "Zigaina exorcised reality by always agreeing with it, yielding, nodding, smiling; but since it would be impossible to do this with all of reality, he first reduced it quantitatively, as the physical theater of his action; and here is Lower Friuli and the lagoon..."

An undoubtedly interesting catalogue, which tells us much about Pasolini's love for an art for which he had dreamed, during his university days (he had been a student of Roberto Longhi), even of a career as an art critic and historian.

A final note: in “The Religion of My Time” (1961), Pasolini demonstrates his great skills as an art critic by describing, in verse, Piero della Francesca's frescoes in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo; these verses constitute the first part (“Piero's Frescoes in Arezzo”) of the poem entitled “Wealth”. Regarding Piero's fresco, which describes a bloody battle, Pasolini's verses refer to the following:

“Those possessed arms, those dark/ backs, that chaos of green soldiers/ and violet horses, and that pure/ light that veils everything/ with dusty tones: and it's a storm,/ it's slaughter. The humiliated gaze distinguishes/ bridle from scarf, fringe from mane;/ the blue arm that, slitting a throat/ rises, from the brown one that shelters/ folded, the horse that stubbornly recoils/ from the horse that, supine, shoots/ kicks into the herd of the bloodless.”

Pasolini, here and elsewhere, translates images and colors into words and verse; in his cinema, on the contrary, he takes possession of the images, enlarging their space beyond measure, without however marginalizing or annihilating the weight, the sound, and the multifaceted meaning of the words.

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Pasolini for Painting, Painters for Pasolini: A Historic Exhibition at the Babuino

1979 was a year that saw the Roman art scene imbued with homages and tributes to one of its most illustrious and tormented intellectuals: Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The group painting exhibition organized by the Galleria del Babuino, entitled "Pasolini for Painting, Painters for Pasolini," was not only an artistic event, but a symbolic act of remembrance and reflection on the figure of a man who had transformed art into one of his most authentic and provocative means of expression.

Forty-five years later, it is essential to retrace the importance of this initiative, not only for its artistic content but also for the cultural and social implications it brought with it.

A heartfelt thanks goes to the magazine Living in Rome and Francesco Sirleto for kindly providing the original material, which allowed us to republish the scope of this extraordinary event.

The Organization of the Exhibition and the Painters Involved

The exhibition was curated by Aldo Incitti, an emblematic figure of the Il Babuino gallery, who had already demonstrated his courage and vision in promoting avant-garde artistic events in the past.

The initiative took place in a context in which art found itself at a crossroads: on one side was tradition, with its deep roots in Rome's cultural and artistic history, and on the other was the need for a new language and a modern sensibility, which Pasolini perfectly embodied.

The exhibition wasn't just a commemoration; it was an attempt to bridge the gap between different art forms and unite painting, poetry, and cinema into a single narrative—that of passion and critical thinking that Pasolini had always sought to convey.

The painters involved, including Diana, Ferranti, Ferrari, Fleres, Fortunato, Mathieu, Micheli, Pernice, and Turco, were established artists who wanted to bear witness to Pasolini's legacy and his influence on their thinking and art through their works.

The exhibition, which focused primarily on black-and-white works, was characterized by a strong dramatic emphasis and a particular attention to realism and crudeness, qualities that recalled the same visual and narrative intensity as Pasolini's works.

The Works and the Dramatic Side of the Exhibition

The works exhibited at the Babuino not only recalled Pasolini's figure, but visually retraced it, providing a symbolic and, in some cases, disturbing representation of him.

The black and white of the canvases seemed to be a tribute to the simplicity and strength of his poetics, while the images, at times crude, recalled the themes of death, solitude, and violence that Pasolini had addressed in his writings and films.

The poet's death, which occurred in a squalid open space at the Idroscalo in Ostia on November 2, 1975, was still all too vivid in the collective memory, and his tragic end was the key through which many of his works could be interpreted.

Pasolini's art, which he considered a potential alternative to film and writing, expressed itself in images that captured the beauty of reality with a raw and unmediated approach. In this sense, the exhibition at the Babuino was not merely a commemoration but a reflection on his artistic and intellectual legacy.

Pasolini's Writings and Poems in the Catalogue

The exhibition catalogue, which Francesco Sirleto he found and which inspired this reflection, contains a selection of texts by Pasolini that reveal his love for visual art and his deep understanding of painting.

Among these, a 1947 text stands out in which Pasolini analyzed the painting of the Veneto and Friuli regions, discussing artists such as Zigaina, Afro, De Pisis, Velenzin, and Toniutti. In this reflection, Pasolini not only explored artistic techniques and themes, but also entered into a critical discourse on the role of art and the artist's social commitment.

Another interesting piece in the catalog is the poem "Melopea per Levi," dedicated to Carlo Levi, an artist who impressed Pasolini with his ability to use color to convey emotion and profound meaning. Pasolini wrote of Levi as a sun "that shines on cemeteries and patiently waits for the dead to awaken," a line that captures the tension between light and darkness, between life and death, themes that run through Pasolini's entire thought.

Friendship with Giuseppe Zigaina and the Connection with Painting

Pasolini had a special relationship with Giuseppe Zigaina, a Friulian painter who was a key figure in his life and artistic output. Zigaina was not only a close friend of Pasolini, but also one of the painters whose art influenced and inspired the poet. Pasolini wrote introductions to Zigaina's exhibition catalogs and described him as an artist who "exorcized reality by always proving it right," managing to capture and embrace the world's complexity without ever rejecting it.

In 1970, Pasolini wrote of Zigaina: “He first of all reduced it quantitatively, as a physical theatre of his actions; and here is the Lower Friuli and the lagoon.”

This description highlights the way Zigaina transformed her reality into a world she sought not to change or judge, but to embrace and represent with sincerity. This vision found profound resonance in Pasolini's artistic approach, which saw art as a means of revealing the most intimate and uncomfortable truths.

Pasolini's Art and Criticism from Writing to Cinematic Vision

A fundamental aspect of Pasolini's artistic and literary production is the way he was able to translate images and colors into words and verse, and vice versa. In "The Religion of My Time" (1961), Pasolini demonstrates his skills as an art critic by describing Piero della Francesca's frescoes in the church of San Francesco in Arezzo.

The verses, which are part of the poem entitled “La ricchezza”, offer an example of how Pasolini was capable of creating a visual poetry, capable of conveying the power and energy of pictorial images:

“Those possessed arms, those dark/ backs, that chaos of green soldiers/ and violet horses, and that pure/ light that veils everything/ with shades of dust: and it's a storm,/ it's slaughter.”

In these lines, Pasolini not only describes a painting, but relives and reinterprets it through his own lens, transforming the fresco into a sensorial and intellectual experience. In this way, the poet and director managed to give voice and meaning to what was visually fascinating, yet terribly complex.

A Legacy That Continues

The 1979 exhibition at the Babuino was an opportunity to reflect on how art can serve as a tool for memory and the transmission of values ​​and thoughts. Pasolini was not only a poet, a filmmaker, and an essayist, but also a man who loved painting and considered it an art form for narrating reality, not just as it was, but as he felt it.

This exhibition paid homage to this aspect of his personality and reminded us all how multifaceted and multidisciplinary he was.

The connection between Pasolini and painting remains today a symbol of how different art forms can complement and enrich each other.

The reflections and works of the painters who participated in the exhibition are a living legacy that continues to speak to us of Pasolini and his love of art, a love that was as profound as it was tragic.

Pasolini for painting, painters for Pasolini: a relationship that extends beyond time and deserves to be remembered and celebrated, so that his memory continues to inspire future generations.