ANTONIO LIGABUE

The Italian painter Antonio Ligabue (1899–1965), born Antonio Laccabue, was one of the most important naive artists of the 20th century. In 1942, the painter changed his birth surname to Ligabue, probably due to his hatred for his father, whom he blamed for his mother's murder. He grew up with foster parents, occasionally worked as a farmhand, and led a nomadic life. He later lived on the support of the municipal hospice for beggars.

Antonio Ligabue began painting in 1920, and in 1928, he met the Italian painter Marino Mazzacurati (1907–1969), who recognized his artistic abilities and taught him to paint with oil colors. In 1937, Ligabue was hospitalized in a psychiatric institution due to self-harm. He was released with the help of the Italian sculptor and painter Andrea Mozzali (1895–1977), who took him into his home in the Italian town of Guastalla.

During World War II, Ligabue served in the Italian army as an interpreter for German units. In 1945, after hitting a German soldier with a bottle, he was interned in a psychiatric institution, where he remained for the next three years.

From 1948, he painted intensively, and journalists, critics, and art dealers began to take an interest in him. In 1957, journalist Severo Boschi from the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino and photographer Aldo Ferrari met him, and this meeting resulted in the most famous photograph of Antonio Ligabue today.

In 1961, his first solo exhibition was held at the La Barcaccia gallery in Rome. Subsequently, he was injured in a traffic accident and stopped creating. The city of Guastalla dedicated a large exhibition to him in 1963. Ligabue, who was already seriously ill at the time, requested to be admitted to the Catholic Church and died on May 27, 1965, shortly after his baptism and confirmation.

Shortly after his death in 1965, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held as part of the ninth Quadriennale di Roma.