MAXXI’s Collection represents the museum’s founding element and it determines its identity. From October 2015 the display is permanent with several pathways.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Before publishing his first comics, Altan sought his own style, at first by painting, then by drawing and writing in large drawing albums. These were sketches and drafts in which he looked for the synthesis and essentialness (in drawing and in writing) that underlie his art. In these documents, hitherto unpublished, is the raw material that in just a few years’ time Altan was able to perfect.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Altan made his debut in the first issue of Linus in June 1973. The thirty cartoons that were published
contained nothing more than choreographic movements. There was not a single written word. A few months later, Trino was born, a god who has been ordered by another god to create the world. That was how Altan’s world all began.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Altan’s cartoons focus on the illuminated slip, the words that are on the tip of the tongue and that describe, in a flash, the destinies of the world. At least those of our world. The characters are the ingenious blue-collar worker, the depressed pensioner, the embittered wife, the disillusioned woman, politicians, the boy or girl with nothing to lose. They are all bittersweet portraits, wrong-footing and burdensome ones. Laughter is only the first of the reactions they arouse.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
These are the artist’s long comics, adventurous and comical at the same time. They come with Altan’s comments which are meant to underscore the details and to offer an opinion on situations that he himself has created. Colombo, Ada, Casanova, Franz, Zago Oliva, Fritz Melone, Caltagirò live in the worst of worlds, in which the corruption of the bodies and the souls is the terrain from which everything begins.
The rest is history.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Not just the Altan of comics and cartoons, not just the Altan of Pimpa and children’s books: there’s still more to find in the array of his possible styles. For instance, the Altan of the watercolor, the graffiato, the horror vacui, the Altan who instead looks toward infinity. On the back of all these possibilities, Altan adapts himself to illustrating the stories of Gogol and Swift, the fairy tales of Rodari, De Simone, and Piumini, and much more.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Altan’s professional life begins in Brazil, as a member of a troupe led by the filmmaker Gianni Amico. After that experience cinema became an occasional feature in his life. In 1988, he participated in the movie Ada (directed by the Frenchman Gérard Zingg) and in 1992 in Non chiamarmi Omar, which Sergio Staino based on one of Altan’s stories. For some time now, Altan has directed the Pimpa cartoons, and he now plays the lead role in a documentary dedicated to him.
Foto © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Dulcis in fundo. As bittersweet as Altan’s adult world may be, the one he creates for children is harmonious, pure, a paradise. The world as he would like it to be, where everyone (starting from Pimpa) is encouraged, through their generous curiosity, to learn about others, and where everyone responds by willingly offering a bit of themselves. Life is a sort of game where everyone comes out a winner.
a cura di Anne Palopoli e Luca Raffaelli
Extra MAXXI
La chiusura della mostra è stata prorogata al 13 aprile 2020.
Tutto il mondo di Altan raccontato attraverso disegni originali, poster, illustrazioni, quadri, schizzi, tavole, libri e filmati.
Altan è protagonista di una grande mostra al MAXXI, realizzata in coproduzione con Fondazione Solares e Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, a cura di Anne Palopoli e Luca Raffaelli. Una ricognizione completa per raccontare, in un percorso articolato, tutto il suo lavoro tra disegni originali, poster, illustrazioni, quadri, schizzi, tavole, libri e filmati.
Quello di Altan è un mondo in cui il dubbio si rivela come l’unica grande certezza possibile, in cui i grandi miti della storia vengono ribaltati e l’umanità cerca di galleggiare nel disordinato mare della vita. Ci salva una cagnolina che, forte della propria voglia di conoscenza, sorride di fronte alle meraviglie dell’universo.
I personaggi di Altan sono tutti liberi pensatori, così liberi da poter confessare a sé stessi e al mondo anche il proprio desiderio di autodistruzione. Ma il loro pensiero è sempre una rivelazione, è quello che stavamo per dire, che avevamo sulla punta della lingua. Altan ce lo rivela con sorprendente lucidità. Come se fosse sempre un passo avanti a noi.
Ecco finalmente la mostra completa di un autore capace di muoversi agilmente tra disegni dedicati all’infanzia e fumetto d’avventura, tra romanzi illustrati e filmati di animazione, tra vignette e sceneggiature.
Ogni weekend, le educatrici museali accompagnano bambini e adulti a partecipare a I giochi di Pimpa presenti in mostra: la tombola, il memory, il gioco dell’oca e i libri illustrati della Pimpa e l’Armando.
Accompagna la mostra un catalogo edito da Franco Cosimo Panini.
Foto © Altan, Quipos
SECTIONS
Altan before Altan
Trino and the first Altan
The cartoons
Feuilletons
Altan the illustrator
Altan and cinema (and cartoons)
Pimpa and her friends