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PASSION BECOMES REALITY: THE GHIGI-PAGNANI COLLECTION OF RAVENNA The original villa in Ravenna is unique in the whole area and maybe not many people know that it was designed specially to contain a great passion, Roberto Pagnani and his wife Raffaella Ghigi’s passion for art, which developed into the splendid Ghigi-Pagnani collection. The villa was built in 1955 by the Ravenna architect Luciano Galassi, in his first important private commission. It has a mixed American/Mediterranean style with a red-tiled roof, large windows and open interior spaces without any columns or pillars to disturb the view of the works, as befits a true collector’s house. A groove was made between the wall and the ceiling of the rooms, where small hooks could be inserted for the picture chains, as was then the custom in galleries in order to eliminate nails, which were anti-aesthetic and above all not very practical for those who frequently modified the layout of the works. “ Roberto Pagnani embodied the rare figure of the cultured collector”, his grandson Roberto Pagnani, a painter, says proudly. It is Roberto, with his father Giorgio, who manages and looks after this marvellous heritage. His love of art had no venal or exhibitionist intent. You can perceive this as soon as you enter the house and observe the many photographs; these narrate the deep passion which bound him to artists and intellectuals, with whom he developed true friendship. “He bought the works he considered to be most consistent with the philosophical and artistic process which had generated them. What he sought was artistic quality, the coherence between the idea and its expression and, certainly, convincing aesthetic values”. Born in 1914 Roberto Pagnani was an eclectic intellectual with a lively personality. He moved around the main art galleries of the time in search of the languages which the post-war avant-garde painting movement were spreading through Europe and the world, particularly the bright-colored gestural art of French and Italian Informalism and Abstract Expressionism. At the beginning of the fifties he formed a strong friendship with the art critic and historian Alberto Martini, the pupil of Roberto Longhi and the mind behind the famous series of publications I Maestri del colore (The Masters of color), which brought him close to the most interesting artists of the time and led to his meeting with the Bolognese critic Francesco Arcangeli, who often dropped in at the villa. The house soon became an artist’s residence and an intellectual coterie frequented by celebrated artists like Mattia Moreni and the French Georges Mathieu, who were among the best-known names of Italian and French informal art; but also by the painter Ben Shahn, the poet Raffaele Carrieri, the writer Elisabeth Mann Borgese and many others. A place for meeting and exchanging sincere opinions, but above all a place of creativity. The Ghigi-Pagnani collection, the cataloguing of which is currently being supervised by the art historian Federica Nurchis, boats over 200 works and includes masterpieces of informal art, with Appel, Moreni, Mathieu and Vedova; but also darker-colored ones of Lombard Existentialism, with Cazzaniga and Vaglieri. Also a 1961 work by Imai Toshimitsu of the Gutai Group, two masterpieces by the Futurist Pannaggi and La sagra della primavera (The rites of spring) by Gianni Dova, which the director Michelangelo Antonioni used in the film Deserto Rosso. And much more. It is one of the most interesting examples of private art collections, and it was formed in the space of a decade, up to the tragic 8th May 1965 when Roberto Pagnani lost his life in a car accident, alongside his wife Raffaella Ghigi and his young friend Alberto Martini. “ An event with heavy consequences”, his grandson Roberto remembers. “My father Giorgio found himself alone at the age of twenty and had to struggle to save the collection from various kinds of vulture. He succeeded thanks also to the great help given by my mother, who supported him with strength and determination in safeguarding the house and its contents. Over time my parents and I have increased the collection with works of artists like Arp, Hartung, Richter, N. Samorì, P. Thomas, Zancanaro, and many others, and now it is with pride that we dedicate our lives to conserving it, in order to share it and make it continue to communicate”. Marianna Perazzini
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Visit the website of his grandson, Roberto Pagnani, painter: www.robertopagnani.com
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Archivio Collezione Ghigi-Pagnani | Info: carpaps.ravenna@gmail.com | Follow us on Facebook | Follow us on Instagram |
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