Brizzo
By Giuseppe Brizzolari
Antonio Brizzolari has been passionate about art since he was a child, making artistic expression the engine of his life. His was a turbulent, rebellious and nonconformist life in
to which painting, theater and poetry have found a way to express themselves with power and vitality.
Biography
Antonio Brizzolari, known as Brizzo, was born in Florence on 7 January 1941, the son of Carlo Brizzolari and Giulia Biagiolini. As a child he visited the Uffizi and other galleries and museums in the city almost every Sunday with his father and brother Giuseppe. And so his passion for art begins. He spent his adolescence in the Oltrarno (the area of Florence on the left bank of the Arno river) with friends Vito Vacchi, Gilberto Corretti, Marco Marchiani, Fabio Lastrucci and Gianni Sernissi, going to parties, meeting girls and sailing. on the river.
Subsequently, Antonio attended the Porta Romana Art Institute, where he devoted most of his studies to drawing and painting. Among his schoolmates were Aldo Fallai, Alessandro Goggioli, Marco Marchiani, Antonio Roma, Sergio Staino and Mario Strippini. After graduation he enrolled in the Magisterium to become a teacher.
Brizzolari had the opportunity to interact with many artists and photographers of the time, sharing experiences and interests; among them was Archizoom, a design group founded in Florence in 1966.
Between 1968 and 1970, he personally experienced the unrest of those turbulent years. On one occasion, he was even arrested on suspicion of taking part in a seditious and resisting meeting with a public official. He frequented the Bar Manetto, along with other artists, writers and activists in protest movements in late 1968.
During this period he also devoted himself to experimental theater with old friends. With Sandro Chia, also a former student of Porta Romana, he begins to exhibit at the Pinacoteca Camillo d'Afflitto, where Antonio begins to talk about “dressismo” (dressism).
He was more than an artist. He taught drawing and art history in middle schools in Florence and surrounding areas. Expanding his production range, during this time he also wrote a short story, "The Killer and His Pajamas" (now available for purchase). He lived in the area of the Arco di San Pierino (a part of the center of Florence east of the Duomo) in a sort of commune with other patrons of the famous Bar Daria. In the 80s, after a couple of troubled love affairs, he begins a relationship with Anna Calidi and they live together for ten years. After the relationship ended, which was attributed to his exaggerated lifestyle, Antonio returned to the family home.
Following a fire in his apartment, which he himself lit with the intention of destroying his worst paintings, he was sent to a nursing home in San Salvi, where he lived from 1997 to 2008. During that period he took he regularly takes part in creative workshops at the “La Tinaia” studio.
After San Salvi closed in 2009, he moved to another house where he spent the rest of his life teaching and drawing until his death on February 24, 2016.
Works
Interview
A series of videos in which Antonio Brizzolari talks about himself as an artist, painter, poet, but above all as a man.
A story, poetic but also realistic, of a unique character who was able to amaze himself and amaze others.
Stories
Stories of people inspired by his life and work, which have been modified through his colors.
A collection of statements, where you can learn more about the incredible artist.
