【Guest of Honor - ITALY】Exhibition: In Talented Young Hands - From Illustration To Comics Pencils
In Talented Young Hands
From Illustration To Comics Pencils
In 1985 Lorenzo Mattotti produced two Pinocchio illustrations for the exhibition “Doctor Pencil & Mr China: Old Fic- tions and New Illustrators” at the Modern Art Gallery in Bologna. It was a time of great renewal in the world of comics and Mattotti was a leading exponent, yet Italy seemed un- able to recognize his talents back then. Many migrated and there was even talk of an artistic “brain drain”. The publisher Albin Michel welcomed Lorenzo Mattotti as he did when he published Piero Bernardini’s Pinocchio in the 1930s.
Then came Europe, the art schools opened up to foreign students and Italians started to attend foreign schools. These Italians are good, as are the teachers who are professionals from the sector that they encounter in Urbino, Milan, Macerata, Bolzano and Florence. The young talents that we present here are, in our opinion, representative of this new reality, the result of a cosmopolitan openness and the new role of independent publishers that purposefully engage with the schools and “workshops” where young illustrators are honing their skills.
Bologna and its Academy of Fine Arts has become a destination for many young Italians and foreigners. The city of Florence also offers interesting training opportunities, while numerous Italian cities host branches of the International
School of Comics. Alongside these stand the wellestablished institutions: ISIA (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries) in Urbino, Mimas- ter in Milan and Ars in Fabula in Macerata. Nowadays, talented Italian illustrators are present in all markets, and after his posters for Cannes and Venice, our very own Lorenzo Mattotti has rightly landed in Frankfurt. Who are the thirty artists we are presenting here? Young women and men who have recently found their place within a publishing industry that emphasizes the importance of illustration and the language of comics, those who have chosen large backgrounds that need walls visible to all, or others who move between new technologies and self-production. Time will be the judge of their successes and accomplishments.
For now, we have observed them, chosen them, and bet on their talent.
