Arnaldo Romani Brizzi, gallerist and critic, dies at 64

Arnaldo Romani Brizzi, a prominent Roman gallerist, art critic, and historian, died yesterday afternoon in Rome at age 64. Born in Rome in 1953, he was a key figure in the city's cultural scene for over twenty years. In 1990, he founded the historic Galleria Il Polittico in via dei Banchi Vecchi, which became a reference point for the Pittura Colta and Anacronismo movements. He was considered the heir of critic Italo Mussa, theorist of Pittura Colta, a postmodernist return to painting characterized by formal rigor and erudite quotation. Romani Brizzi also curated major international exhibitions, including 'La Pittura ritrovata 1978/1998' at the Museo del Risorgimento in Rome (1999), 'La Pittura delle Gioie' for Bvlgari in Tokyo (2001), and 'La Pittura Ritrovata – Una Situazione Europea' at Palais Porcia in Vienna (2003). He was remembered by Armando Porcari, co-director of The Gallery Apart, as a 'true and honest intellectual' with whom he shared elective affinities.