Andrea Pazienza The Mathematics of the Sign

An exhibition celebrating the artist and guiding us into the heart of his creative process, revealing how his style transformed comics into a new art form.

On the seventieth anniversary of the birth of Andrea Pazienza (1956–1988), the Museum is dedicating an exhibition project to the great author, divided between Rome and L’Aquila. The exhibition in L’Aquila retraces the formative years in which Pazienza defined his own language, a personal lexicon resulting from continuous experimentation. At the heart of the exhibition is the mark, understood not as a simple line, but as a nucleus that generates images, visual rhythm and narrative tools. A flexible graphic grammar, which the artist breaks down and recomposes, transforming the stroke into a living organism capable of expressing emotions and moods.

The exhibition brings together over 300 works, many of which have never been seen before: childhood drawings, ink drawings, watercolours and marker pen compositions. These works demonstrate his ability to combine precision and spontaneity, control and impetus, measure and improvisation. His output combines painting and comics, tradition and the freshness of a contemporary and popular language.

Organised chronologically and thematically, the exhibition traces the fundamental stages of the artist’s creative career, revealing to the public not only his innovative energy but also his deep connection with Abruzzo, the region where he took his first steps as an artist. A special section is dedicated to Convergenze, the art gallery in Pescara that hosted Pazienza’s first solo exhibition in 1973, a landmark for many artists of that artistic season.

Andrea Pazienza, Autoritratto come nobile olandese del Seicento, 1975, marker on colored paper, private Collection