Antonio Ligabue: The Outsider Artist's Retrospective in Padua

A major monographic exhibition at the Musei Civici agli Eremitani in Padua explores the life and work of Antonio Ligabue (Zurich, 1899 – Gualtieri, 1965), an outsider artist whose troubled existence was marked by psychosis, institutionalization, and social marginalization. Born in Switzerland, Ligabue was expelled by his adoptive mother due to aggressive behavior and spent much of his life in rural Reggio Emilia, living in abandoned huts and communicating with animals. He changed his surname from Laccabue (tainted by his stepfather's murder of his mother) to Ligabue, asserting his artistic identity. The exhibition, titled "Le vite possibili di un antieroe" (The Possible Lives of an Antihero), presents his self-portraits as a catalog of unstable moods, revealing his physical deformities (protruding ears, hooked nose, goiter) and self-inflicted wounds. Another section, "Nella giungla dello sciamano" (In the Shaman's Jungle), displays his fantastical landscapes blending Swiss villages with Po Valley fields, populated by animals from encyclopedias and adventure films. His paintings depict violent struggles between beasts, reflecting his inner turmoil. Ligabue, who once traded paintings for soup, famously declared, "I am a great artist. When I am dead, my paintings will cost a lot!" The exhibition includes clinical records and masterpieces created out of instinct and necessity, highlighting his recognition by neorealist critics during his lifetime.