Andrea Pazienza The Mathematics of the Sign

A tribute to the talent of Andrea Pazienza and his influence on Italian art and culture, celebrating the artist’s special connection with Abruzzo, where he spent his youth and formative years.

The exhibition, which anticipates the monographic show that MAXXI Rome will dedicate to the comic artist in 2026 to mark the seventieth anniversary of his birth, presents approximately forty graphic and pictorial works created using watercolours, ink, and markers. It analyses his use of colour, line, and stroke, and showcases key pages that illustrate the compositional structure he adopted in his comics.

The exhibition explores Andrea Pazienza’s style and technique, his spatial approach, and the influences and references that shaped his work, from his earliest childhood sketches, through his “Pescara” and “Bologna” periods, culminating in his final artistic masterpieces. A special focus is dedicated to Convergenze, the Pescara-based art gallery that hosted Pazienza’s first solo exhibition in 1973, a key venue for many artists of that era.

Andrea Pazienza, Repubblica italiana, 1974, acrylic on canvas, 50×70 cm. © Mariella Pazienza and Michele Pazienza