Pascali Pino (1935 - 1968) Angeli Franco (1935 - 1988) - Biography
Pino Pascali (1935 - 1968) was an Italian artist, sculptor, set designer and performer. He was one of the founding figures of the Arte Povera movement. After an already artistically oriented education in Bari, in 1956 he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, studying scenography with a specialization in theatrical and television scenography, areas in which he became famous before dedicating himself to the visual arts. In 1965 he held his first personal exhibition in Rome, at the prestigious “La Tartaruga” gallery. In just three years he attracted the attention of some important Italian art critics (such as Vivaldi, Calvesi, Grandi, Rubiu, Boatto, Bucarelli, De Marchis) and important gallery owners such as Sargentini, Sperone, Iolas (who exhibited in Paris in 1968 ). In the summer of 1968 he was invited to exhibit his works at the 34th Venice Biennale where a personal room was reserved for him. In his works, he translated the world of the imagination into monumental forms and essential, synthetic structures, such as the features of the Apulian Romanesque and the characteristics of the medieval bestiaries of his churches, which at the same time remind us of the symbols of the diffusion of mass culture (comics, cinema, fashion) . He creates his "fake sculptures" with fragile and ephemeral materials (canvas, wood, steel wool, acrylic hair, straw, raffia). In doing so he offers an original and critical response (Italian and Southern) to the new trends coming from the United States, such as Pop Art and Minimal Art. He anticipated Arte Povera, Body Art and the conceptual art of the 70s. He died tragically and prematurely in Rome on 11 September 1968, in a car accident.
