Pizzinato, Armando

Armando Pitstsinato was the eldest son in the family of Battista Pitstsinato and Andremondy Astolfo ^[1] . He began working at the age of 15 to help his mother after the death of his father. He entered the apprenticeship to the painter, and later worked as a clerk in a local bank. He had an interest in painting and drawing since childhood, and after buying the book “The Lives of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors and Architects ” Giorgio Vasari only increased. He was still a teenager when the bank manager arranged lessons for him with the artist Pio Rossi. Then, in 1930, thanks to the money he earned, he managed to enroll at the School of Fine Arts in Venice. Soon, he met some of his future famous contemporaries, such as Alberto Viani, Giulio Turcato , Mario de Luigi, Ferruccio Bortoluzzi (in the 1940s), Carlo Scarpa , Afro Basaldella and Mirco Basaldella.

In 1933, with five of his paintings, he took part in the exhibition “Five Young Artists from Venice” in the gallery Il Milione in Milan . In 1936, he received a Marangoni scholarship to visit Rome . In 1940, he received the second Premio Bergamo at the National Exhibition of Painting.

In 1941, he married Zaire Kandiani, in marriage with whom he had a daughter, Patricia, born August 19, 1943. Zaire has been a source of inspiration for many Pitscinato paintings. After the death of Zaire in 1962, Pitscinato married Clarice Allergini.

During World War II, Pizzinato was a socialist, a member of the Italian Resistance; he was arrested by the fascists and imprisoned. After the war, Pizzinato dedicated his life to art. He joined the Italian avant-garde movement, and also participated, together with Emilio Vedova and others, in the creation of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti ("new art front"). This movement organized its exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1948. Peggy Guggenheim , who visited this exhibition, bought Pitstsinato's Primo Maggio painting there, and then transferred it to the New York Museum of Modern Art , where it is still on display. For his part, Pitscinato donated several paintings to Peggy Guggenheim, including Cantieri , which is still part of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection . From the beginning of the 1950s, the artist also turned to the topic of creative labor using clear, sharp drawing, clear spatial plans, sharp angles, and rhythmic juxtaposition of broad color planes. The most famous paintings of this period are: “Loader” (1953), “Builders” (1961–62). During these years, he created, among other works, several monumental canvases in collaboration with Emilio Vedov, inspired by the history of the Italian Resistance Movement. Among his works as a monumentalist, the most famous are the frescoes in the building of the Parma provincial administration, created in 1953-1956.

In 1949, Pitstsinato’s works were included by Alfred Barr and James Thrall Sobie in an exhibition of 20th-century Italian art at the New York Museum of Modern Art . In 1950, the gallery of Katerina Viviano in New York exhibited works Pitstsinato in the exhibition "Five Italian Artists." In the same year, Pitstsinato was invited to the Pittsburgh International Contemporary Art Exhibition. Painting Un Fantasma percorre l'Europa , which is considered one of the masterpieces of Pitscinato, dates back to 1950 (exhibited in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ca 'Pesaro, Venice).

Since 1950, he deliberately changed the themes of his paintings in accordance with his political convictions (a typical example is the work of Terra non Guerra, I difensori delle fabbricche, Saldatori) ). In 1952, he took part in the exhibition of "several contemporary Italian artists" in the Krein Gallery in Manchester . In the same year, he participated in the Congress of People for Peace in Vienna . In 1968, he organized a large exhibition in Germany, first in the Neue Galerie Berliner, and then in the State artworks of Dresden . Pitscinato's works are also part of the Verzocci collection in the Civica di Forlì pinacotheque .

• Pittura di A. Pizzinato. Catalogo, Venezia, 1962
• Armando Pitstsinato. [Album, foreword V. Goryainova, M., 1971].
• Virgilio Guidi, 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 del Artiai Giardini di Zaira , Silvana Editoriale, La Spezia, 2001
• Giancarlo Pauletto, Luciano Padovese, Armando Pizzinato , Centro Culturale A. Zanussi, Pordenone, 2005, ISBN 88-8426-017-5