Mario Pizzoni, an Umbrian from Sant’Eraclio (1935), begins painting his first landscapes and portraits from life in the 1950s; he makes his début as a painter at the Agosto Corcianese in 1962 and wins the gold medal. The following year, at Città di Castello, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Resistance, in the exhibition named after ‘Venanzio Gabriotti’, he earns an important award, championed by Leoncillo on the jury. He then produces a large painting on the Vajont tragedy in a distinctive technique: oil colours scored, like an engraving.

1964. First solo show in Città di Castello, at Palazzo Bufalini. He then takes part in the group exhibition ‘Pittori e scultori’ [Painters and Sculptors] in Foligno, in the only room of the Teatro Piermarini to have been spared by the bombs. In this phase his pictorial output is marked too by collages on themes political, social and of social mores.

Having moved to Perugia, he takes his diploma at the ‘Bernardino di Betto’ Istituto d’arte and subsequently attends the Academy of Fine Arts.

1968. He alternates his artistic engagement with a political one; together with friends he promotes a large exhibition on the Vietnam War, then takes part in a group show at the Palazzo dei Priori, ‘Artisti umbri per il Vietnam’ [Umbrian Artists for Vietnam]. From this period onward he begins to experiment with new techniques and experiences, the fruit of inspiration and knowledge: in particular, journeys among abandoned quarries. In Slovenia he discovers a very hard stone, grey within and dark without, called the ‘Nube nera’ [Black Cloud]; in a quarry of Roman date, a stone of the purest white, without veining, malleable. He makes a number of works with these and other materials: stones, shrubs, bark blackened by smoke, gathered along railway lines, discards from rubbish tips and offcuts from carpenters’ workshops.

In the 1970s and 1980s he abandons the collages for wall bas-reliefs in assorted materials. He takes part in solo and group shows: Assisi, Sassoferrato, Umbertide, Città di Castello.

The phase of large-scale open-air sculpture begins; frequenting assiduously the Fratelli Borgia stone quarry at Tuoro, he conceives ‘La Serena di Tuoro’, monumental works dispersed across various sites.

At the end of the 1980s he organises group shows for the inauguration of the Fontivegge business centre and others at Cerreto d’Esi and Gubbio, then ‘Collocazioni’ [Placements], sculptures set in various spaces in the historic centre of Perugia.

In 1989 he takes part in the permanent Land Art event ‘Scultori a Brufa’ [Sculptors at Brufa], of which he becomes artistic director for a certain period. The 1990s bring numerous appearances and solo shows, among them ‘Trasimena’ and, later, ‘Sculture nel verde’ [Sculptures in the Green] at Castiglione del Lago; ‘CartArte’ at Città della Pieve; ‘Sculture nel parco’ [Sculptures in the Park], a solo show in the monumental setting of Villa Fidelia at Spello, followed by ‘Integrazione’ [Integration].

Other group shows at Corciano, Spello, Gubbio and several in Perugia, in some cases in the role of organiser.

From the 1990s onward, ‘Sculture a Brufa’ [Sculptures at Brufa], open-air works in the village and its surroundings, which becomes ‘La strada del vino e dell’arte’ [The Road of Wine and Art], linking the village to Torgiano; it widens into ‘BrufArte giovani’.

In 1996 the project ‘Artisti a scuola’ [Artists at School] gets under way, promoted with various collaborators to bring the language of contemporary art closer to the pupils of several primary schools in Perugia and its province. It draws on participatory work by pupils and artists, in a spirit of creative freedom, of dialogue and collaboration. It proves a great success, with surprising expressive results. Running parallel is the ‘Giordano Bruno’ project for the Comune of Panicale and the exhibition of the works made with the pupils of the Tavernelle primary school.

For the new millennium, the industrial world, mills and disused factories, becomes an object of creative interest, beginning with the activities in the large storage/workshop shed placed at his disposal by Tonino Guarducci. The venues of these artistic operations are the old Feltrificio [felt mill] at Ponte Valleceppi and the hydroelectric power station at Ponte Felcino, in whose reclaimed spaces a large group show unfolds. ‘LabArt’, an open art workshop, at last creates, together with schoolchildren, artists and enthusiasts, a large public fountain, the ‘Teverina’, installed in the educational woodland of Ponte Felcino. Again with ‘LabArt’, and within the ambit of ‘Artisti a scuola’, the first edition of ‘Natura e Arte’ [Nature and Art] takes place. After the great flood of 2005, from a large salvaged trunk, ‘Silvestro’ is born, the Tree of Peace. Four years later, a solo show of his in the educational woodland for the 2nd edition of ‘Natura e Arte’, with fifty works.

2007-2008. Castiglione del Lago: along the town and lakeside route, a solo exhibition of sculptures; of particular note the show at Morra (Città di Castello), at the extraordinary Oratory of San Crescentino (with works by Luca Signorelli), of which one sculpture remains outside.

In the years that follow, the idea of ‘RiusArte’ takes shape, ecology as another form of creating: Music-Painting-Sculpture. In 2018 an exhibition is mounted in the spaces of the library of San Matteo degli Armeni.

2020. ‘La natura ricreata’ [Nature Recreated]. Following the echo of his creative relationship with the natural world, ‘Pizzoni’s art weds the greenery of the Case del Rio’, so runs the title of an article, on the permanent installation of sculptures (wood, stone, iron) in the park of the Micchi/Minuti property at Ponterio di Perugia (open to visitors by appointment); the event was the occasion for the article in this issue of the journal.

Works by Mario Pizzoni are still to be found in various public spaces: in Perugia (Pian di Massiano, Parco Santa Margherita); Spello (Villa Fidelia); Torgiano-Brufa; Morra; Castiglione del Lago (the town’s lakeshore).

On the occasion of the pandemic he is making small wall works with waste stones, the promise of an exhibition entitled ‘Lasciate giocare il vecchio con le pietre’ [Let the Old Man Play with the Stones] (after M. Yourcenar).

The photographs of the works accompanying this text were taken in the park of the Micchi/Minuti property, on the occasion of the opening of the permanent exhibition, which may be visited by appointment every Saturday from May to September, by prior arrangement at the following numbers 347/3555709 358/2445830.

Angela Margaritelli has worked at the Study Centre of the Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria. An expert in the performing arts, she has long been engaged in the promotion and dissemination of art and culture.