1988 – Paolo Fornaciari

From La Nazione, 1988 – Palazzo Paolina hosts a major exhibition of works by the painter Eugenio Pardini.

This show, organized by the Viareggio town hall culture councilor, is one of the summer’s main cultural appointments in the town, along with the Bay exhibition, sponsored by the Premio Letterario Viareggio, to be held in the Tenuta Borbone from 1 July.

Eugenio Pardini, born in Viareggio in via Machiavelli, a little over sixty-five years ago, arrives “home” at Palazzo Paolina, in order to almost crown his long artistic experience, full of major consensus, from the public and critics alike. After having exhibited his works in the most important public and private galleries in Italy and abroad, this show is dedicated to an overview of his work from the past 15 years.

The story that unfolds in the over 100 canvases on display tells the tale of his marine adventures, his “muses” and floral compositions; it is a fantastic dream, a cry of hope for a better world, punctuated by mythical visions, by evocations of fairytale-like images, by legends of the people of the sea.

Mario De Micheli presents the show catalogue, an elegant monograph published by Evangelista in Milan, with an ample and articulate critical essay by the title: “Energy of a lyrical vision”. About the show, he writes: “This is the latest Pardini, the one who can be admired in this exhibition; brilliant in color, laidback in composition, lyrical in his inspiration.”

PAOLO FORNACIARI

Born in Viareggio on 2 March 1949, he has been the director of the Centro Documentario Storico of Viareggio since 1977. A state certified journalist, he edited the magazine on history and culture “Viareggio ieri”, worked with the Tuscan magazine of local history “Microstoria” and writes weekly articles in the local editions of national newspapers. He has created programs on history for the television network “Rete Versilia” and is an artistic consultant for the Fondazione Carnevale in publishing the magazine “Viareggio in maschera” and for a number of exhibitions. He has been part of a team working on a project for the establishment of the “Museo del Carnevale,” outlining a historical illustration of the Carnival of Viareggio. An art lover, he has overseen numerous exhibitions for the Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Viareggio: a major traveling exhibition for Lorenzo Viani to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, which toured Rome, Milan, Paris, Florence and Viareggio; a group exhibition of works by Ronato Santini, Eugenio Pardini, Alfredo Catarsini, Ferruccio Orlandi and Moses Levy, in addition to a number of other group exhibitions of artists from Viareggio and Versilia. He organized the project “Spazio Cultura” for Viareggio’s Green Cross, curating the art exhibition “La memoria colorata”. He has been a professor of “Local History” at the Università della Terza Età – Versilia for over twenty years and is the creator and curator of the monographic series “Quaderni del Centro”, “Quaderni di storia e cultura” and of the “Storia&grafica” files, which count a total of 36 titles. He organized the “Lorenzo Viani” section of the Centro Documentario Storico, creating an inventory of bibliographic documents and materials, editing the volume “Caro Lorenzo”, a collection of correspondence sent to the artist from Viareggio, in addition to two tracts on the War Memorial in Viareggio, making an important contribution in determining Viani’s impact as a sculptor. He is the author of the treatise “Viareggio Novecento” and, together with Umberto Guidi, the volume “Viareggio in maschera – La Memoria del Carnevale”, published on behalf of the Fondazione Carnevale di Viareggio. He has participated in the publication of the volume “Viareggio” with an essay on art history for the publishing house Idea Books. In addition, he has been the director of the Museo della Marineria for little more than a year, in which capacity he is a participant in “The Museums of the Sea”, an international project of the European Community led by the museum in Viareggio.

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