The fantastic world of Jacovitti, comic genius, on display in Aosta

The Saint Bénin Center in Aosta is hosting, from October 27, 2018 to April 28, 2019, the exhibition The World of Jacovitti. The exhibition, curated by Dino Aloi and Silvia Jacovitti, the artist’s daughter, presents as many as 250 original drawings by the comic genius, through which it will be possible to reconstruct the path of a career that lasted nearly sixty years, which led Jacovitti, one of the greatest Italian cartoonists ever, to create unforgettable characters that have accompanied entire generations of children. On display will be sketches, cartoons, comic book plates and illustrations that make up an articulated itinerary with drawings that, in several cases, are being shown to the public in their originals for the first time. Also on display will be some plates made for promotional items and 60 sticker drawings made in 1954 for the Il Vittorioso album “Genti d’ogni paese,” in which Jacovitti’s flair ranges across the five continents depicting each people in his own way.Also rich in charm are some of the early plates from the 1940s for Il Vittorioso and other newspapers, true examples of drawn calligraphy. Prominent among them for their beauty are the drawings of Goofy and the War, Mandrago, The Honorable Tarzan, Goofy in the Mountains, Hyacinth the Painted Privateer and Orestes the Spoilsport, all recently returned to the possession of his daughter.

In the section devoted to the beginnings, it will be possible to admire one of the very first panoramas created by Jacovitti when he was only seventeen years old: these are works that anticipate the crowded plates that would become, over the years, a sort of his trademark of production, as well as six plates, the only ones left, of the unpublished story The Three Kings, drawn during World War II. They will go from the plates of the legendary Diario Vitt, made from 1949 to 1980, a true icon of the students of those years, to the diaries made by Jac in the 1980s, through his collaborations with major newspapers for children such as Il Vittorioso, Il Giorno dei ragazzi, Corriere dei Piccoli and Il Giornalino, and again you will see originals of Cocco Bill, Tom Ficcanaso, Tarallino, Occhio di Pollo, Jack Mandolino, Chicchirino,Cip the Archpoliceman and Zorry Kid, who turns fifty this year (which is why an entire history of this character will be on display). The highlight of the exhibition will be some illustrations he made for Pinocchio, published in 1964, recognized by critics as among the most significant works of his career.

Jacovitti frequented television through the creation of important “Carousels” and stories aired on the cult program Supergulp! His crowded panoramas, full of hundreds of characters and jokes, personification of Italy in those years, will have a place of honor within the exhibition. The Patentone, a goose game on the automobile theme, will be reproduced in large format for children to play inside the Saint-Bénin Center space with place-marking silhouettes and a rubber gum nut.

“Jacovitti,” says Aosta’s Councillor for Education and Culture, Paolo Sammaritani, “represents a fundamental point of Italian and international graphic humor. Although twenty-one years have now passed since his death, the fascination of his endless production remains unchanged.”

The exhibition The World of Jacovitti will remain open until Sunday, April 28, 2019, with hours Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 6 p.m. Closed Mondays. The entrance fee is 6 euros full, 4 euros reduced; reduced 50% Alpitur; free entrance for children under 18. It will be possible to purchase a subscription with the exhibition Ugo Lucio Borga. Collateral damages set up at the Archaeological Museum of Aosta from October 13, 2018, at a cost of 7 euros full and 5 euros reduced. Completing the exhibition is a volume published by Il Pennino, with critical contributions by Fabio Norcini (art critic), Daria Jorioz (art historian), Gian Paolo Caprettini (former professor of Semiology at the University of Turin), Vincenzo Mollica (RAI journalist), Gianni Brunoro and Luca Boschi (among the most important Italian Jacovittologists), François Corteggiani (author of Comics) and Goffredo Fofi (essayist and film critic). The volume is on sale at the exhibition for €30. The introductory video is made by Costantino Sarnelli, Laura Chiotasso and Barbara Forneris of Creative Apsu. Two lectures dedicated to Jacovitti’s art and a monthly meeting as an introductory course to humor comics, held by Claudio Puglia, are scheduled during the exhibition period.

Pictured: a panel by Jack Mandolino

The fantastic world of Jacovitti, comic genius, on display in Aosta

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