Antonio Ligabue and the art of the outsiders

An investigation into the complex relationship between art and madness; an in-depth look at the personal lives and works of artists who wrote important pages in the history of 20th-century Italian art, whose training developed within the framework of traditional studies but took a different direction after they had a profound experience in a mental hospital, and at the work of artists who discovered the power of art and their own talent in a psychiatric hospital.

The exhibition, curated by Simona Bartolena, produced and organised by ViDi cultural and Ponte43, in collaboration with the Municipality of Lecco and SIMUL, features 14 works by Antonio Ligabue and around 40 paintings and drawings by masters such as Filippo de Pisis, Rino Ferrari, Edoardo Fraquelli, Pietro Ghizzardi, Mario Puccini, Gino Sandri, Carlo Zinelli, i.e. artists who followed an academic course of study and played a leading role in the Italian art scene, but who spent a period of time in psychiatric care facilities due to profound mental distress or encountered art during their confinement in mental hospitals.