Antonio
By Giuseppe Brizzolari
Born in Florence on 7 January 1941, son of Carlo Brizzolari and Giulia Biagiolini. As a child he visited the Uffizi Gallery and other museums in Florence almost every Sunday with his father and brother. Thus was born his passion for art.
He spent his teenage years in the Ottramo district with friends Vito Vacchi, Gilberto Corretti, Marco Marchiani, Fabio Lastrucci and Gianni Sernissi, going to parties, meeting girls and taking boat trips on the Arno river.
Subsequently, Antonio attended the Porta Romana Art Institute where he devoted most of his studies to drawing and painting. Some of his schoolmates were Aldo Fallai, Alessandro Goggioli, Marco Marchiani, Antonio Roma, Sergio Staino, Mario Strippini. After graduating, he enrolls in the Magisterium for teaching qualification. Brizzolari met with many artists, photographers and groups, including Archizoom.
From 1968 to 1970 he personally experienced the unrest and disturbances of those turbulent years. He was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a seditious meeting and resisting public officials.
During this period he also dedicated himself to experimental theater and to happenings with his old friends. He meets Sandro Chia, also a former student of the Porta Romana Art Institute, and together they become part of the picture gallery of the Marquise Camillo d'Afflitto, where they exhibit their works and where Antonio begins to talk about "dress".
He himself was more than an artist. He taught drawing and art history in some middle schools in Florence and other neighboring areas. At the same time, he would like to frequent the Bar Manetto with artists, authors and cultural activists of the protest movements of the late 1960s.
Expanding his portfolio, Antiono wrote the short story "The murderer and his pajamas", now available for sale. He lived in the area of the Arch of San Pierinos in a kind of commune with other hunters from the well-known Bar Daria.
In the eighties, after a couple of troubled love affairs, he gets involved with Anna Calidi, a woman with whom he spent 10 years together and with whom he also lived. After the relationship ended due to his exaggerated lifestyle, Antionio returned to the family home.
After an attempted arson attack on his apartment, initiated by himself as an attempt to destroy his worst, he was sent to his first retirement home, San Salvi, where he lived from 1997 to 2008, regularly participating in the creative workshops of the " The "Tinaia" Laboratory After the restaurant 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.