Pietro Ghizzardi exhibition at Maroncelli 12 in Milan

Galleria Maroncelli 12 in Milan presents a selection of about ten cardboard works by Pietro Ghizzardi (Viadana, 1906 – Boretto, 1986), executed during the 1960s, most of which are double-sided. The self-taught artist and writer, discovered by Cesare Zavattini, used recycled materials like soot and plant juices to create drawings that blend anthropological documentation with a rough, dreamlike expressionism. His subjects range from the rural world of the Po Valley to the glamorous actresses of tabloids, which he transforms into unsettling, wild femininity. Ghizzardi's work parallels his celebrated memoir, where grammatical errors and dialect inflections become a severe, original language. The exhibition highlights his ability to redeem his marginalized identity as a farm laborer through an indomitable artistic vocation.