Siena: 70 years of Tex Willer celebrated by an exhibition at Santa Maria della Scala

From November 23, 2019 to January 26, 2020, the Santa Maria della Scala complex in Siena is hosting the exhibition Tex. 70 Years of a Myth. Curated by Gianni Bono, a historian and scholar of Italian comics, in collaboration with the editorial staff of Sergio Bonelli Editore and COMICON, the exhibition tells the story of the editorial fortune of the character Tex, who, thanks to his profound sense of justice and generosity, has managed, from 1948 to the present day, to enter the reading habits of Italians and become a true phenomenon of custom. It was September 30, 1948, in fact,when the first issue of Tex, a character created by Gianluigi Bonelli and graphically realized by Aurelio Galleppini, destined to become the most beloved hero of Italian comics and one of the longest-lived in world comics, was released on Italian newsstands.

Seventy years later, Tex Willer is celebrated with an exhibition, in fact the most important tribute ever dedicated to Aquila della Notte, which recounts his extraordinary editorial story through drawings, photographs, rare and sometimes unpublished materials, as well as installations created especially for the event: Tex’s unforgettable challenges with Mephisto, his lifelong enemy and embodiment of evil; the adventures where, chieftain of the Navajos, he confronts bandits and evildoers to save persecuted Indian tribes; the gallops over the dusty trails of the Old West; and the raids from the hot deserts of Mexico to the icy regions of the Great North.

In the exhibition, visitors will be able to admire, among many documents, the first cartoon of Tex in several languages, the portrait of Gianluigi Bonelli and family made by Ferdinando Tacconi, photographs by Aurelio Galleppini, and Gianluigi Bonelli’s typewriter: theUniversal 200 decorated by Bonelli himself and kept in the publishing house’s meeting room, with which the first Tex stories were created.

Over the course of its seventy years, Tex has had four main scriptwriters, whose narratives can be admired at Santa Maria della Scala: Giovanni Luigi Bonelli(Milan, Dec. 22, 1908 - Alessandria, Jan. 12, 2001), creator of the Tex myth, followed, in 1976, by his son Sergio Bonelli, who signed the comic strip under the pseudonym Guido Nolitta; Claudio Nizzi, who took over in 1983, mixing the western with elements typical of the detective genre; and finally, since 1994, Mauro Boselli, the current curator who brings Tex back to its origins.

On display will be the front pages of some newspapers that will also allow, in addition, to retrace seventy years of Italian history: a sort of parallel between the adventures of the brave Ranger and the events of our country.

A space will be entirely dedicated to the exhibition of materials by two well-known Sienese cartoonists: Giovanni Ticci, who in 1968 signed his first Texan adventure, and Alessandro Bocci, cartoonist for Sergio Bonelli Editore since 2001.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the catalog Tex. 70 Years of a Myth with an introduction by Davide Bonelli, texts by Gianni Bono, Graziano Frediani, Luca Boschi and Luca Barbieri, full of rare materials, drawings and texts related to the history of Tex Willer.

For all infomations you can visit the official website of Santa Maria della Scala.

Source: press release

Siena: 70 years of Tex Willer celebrated by an exhibition at Santa Maria della Scala

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