MAXXI celebrates Jacovitti and his fantastic universe on the centenary of his birth

From October 25, 2023 to February 18, 2024, MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts pays tribute to Benito Jacovitti, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, with the exhibition Jacovittissime. The irrepressible art of humor, curated by Dino Aloi and Silvia Jacovitti with curatorial coordination by Giulia Ferracci.

The exhibition is part of a larger project that also includes the exhibition Jacovittissimevolmente. All the follies of Jac!, curated by Luca Raffaelli, set up at the MACTE Museum of Contemporary Art in Termoli and open to the public from Oct. 7, 2023 to Feb. 25, 2024. Starting with the title that unites the two exhibitions, a sort of tongue twister, the public is catapulted into theJacovittian universe, animated by fantastic and surreal characters. A playful, irreverent and visionary world meant to make people think by putting them in a good mood.

About four hundred original plates and illustrations, as well as a series of newspapers, albums and books that are also original, will be on display at MAXXI, populated by more than a hundred characters born from his pencil that have accompanied entire generations.

The installation, an explosion of colors, is inspired by Anticaglie, one of the famous panoramas invented by Jac, plates crowded with characters that have become, over the years, a trademark of his production. Here the panorama is at the center of the exhibition, arranged on the floor like a carpet, and accompanies visitors through the different sections of the exhibition.

“The artist becomes an overflowing river, a storm-tossed sea, a storm that hits with the same irrepressible force as someone who wants to hit the mark, namely his peaceful reader, who is inexorably swept away by this hurricane of inventions,” writes curator Dino Aloi. “Thanks to him we are able to find ourselves again, the best part, the funny part, which reminds us of the eternal childhood to which we remain deeply attached.”

The exhibition tour starts from the beginning, in 1939, when Jac began publishing cartoons in the Florentine satirical weekly Il Brivido. Also found here are six unpublished plates, the only ones left, of the unpublished story I tre re (The Three Kings), drawn in 1941 and dedicated to the Pope, the King and Mussolini. It continues with the first stories printed in Il Vittorioso (1937 - 1970), a famous periodical dedicated to comics. On display are small-format plates in which the skill of drawing is combined with the invention of stories with broad plots, western and detective, exotic and oriental, such as Ali Baba, The Babes of Allah, Goofy in Africa and The Hon. Tarzan.

The crowded panoramas, filled with hundreds of figures and jokes, personification of Italy in those years, occupy an entire exhibition area with plates such as Arte moderna, Er gioco der pollo, Buon Natale dottò!

The walls of the central space, on the other hand, are invaded by his one hundred characters: Giacinto corsaro dipinto, Oreste il Guastafeste, Battista l’ingenuo fascista, Cocco Bill, Zorry Kid, Tom Ficcanaso, Occhio di Pollo, Pippo Pertica e Palla, la Signora Carlomagno, Microciccio Spaccavento and many others. A large selection of color plates is devoted to KamasuLtra, a goliardic 1977 publication, a funny manual of acrobatic erotic positions made with Marcello Marchesi, and to later plates made for Playman magazine. Inevitable are the plates from Diario Vitt, the diary of Edizioni AVE Il Vittorioso, full of vignettes and illustrations. This is followed by a section devoted to the years when Jacovitti’s pencil was lent to some advertising campaigns and animations for Carosello.

The exhibition closes with a play area designed for younger children, where original illustrations created in 1964 for Pinocchio are displayed, as well as a series of plates created by leading Italian and foreign cartoonists who, over the years, have paid tribute to the master.

Accompanying the exhibition is the book JACOVITTISSIMEVOLMENTE. The irrepressible art of humor, edited by Dino Aloi and Silvia Jacovitti, Il Pennino Publisher, 168 pages, Italian. Organized in chapters introduced by brief descriptive texts, the book traces the history of Benito Jacovitti, from his beginnings to his final years, from cartoons for Il Brivido, to the plates for the famous periodical Il Vittorioso, to KamasuLtra and his interventions for movie posters, posters, advertisements and gadgets. Boards, sketches, sketches and illustrations join descriptive texts and essays by critics, curators and journalists, creating a multifaceted universe that combines playfulness and irreverence, irony and poetry.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the Education Office offers family activities. During Carnival 2024, in particular, workshops are planned to discover the art of drawing together with cartoonist Luca Salvagno. Adult audiences can explore Jacovitti’s chaotic and irreverent universe through guided tours (for info, reservations and tickets contact edumaxxi@fondazionemaxxi.it).

MAXXI celebrates Jacovitti and his fantastic universe on the centenary of his birth

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