Remembered as one of the most significant cartoonists of his generation, Andrea Pazienza is today, also through documentaries in one honor, a point of reference thanks to his innovative features.
Who was Andrea Pazienza
Andrea Michele Vincenzo Ciro Pazienza (San Benedetto del Tronto, 23 May 1956 – Montepulciano, 16 June 1988) was a Italian cartoonist.
He grew up in the province of Ascoli Piceno together with his father an art teacher and his mother a technique teacher. The passion for drawing by parents who encourage him in small jobs such as the creation of sets for some theatrical performances.
During the years of the artistic high school he began to make the first comics and the first paintings, exposing them to collective and individual exhibitions. After high school he decides to enroll at the University of Bologna he chooses the degree course in Disciplines of Arts, Music and Entertainment.
After leaving school, he joins the movements born in 1977 that also inspire him for the realization of his comic “The extraordinary adventures of Pentothal”.
The beginning of Andrea Pazienza’s career
Although he will not finish the University, he will be grateful for the knowledge made in the faculty where he has the opportunity to approach writers and artists including Todelli and Palandri. He also joins, together with Filippo Scozzari, at the “Cannibale” magazine which is presented as an experimental project of comics with a humorous and satirical background. Later he also collaborated with the expressly satirical weekly “Evil”. Together with some colleagues, the monthly was born in 1980 “Frigidaire” where he will give vent to the maximum of his artistic expression.
Later he decides to devote himself to world of teaching working at the Free University of Alcatraz founded by Dario Fo and run by his son and also at the School of Comics and Graphic Arts where he teaches a course until 1984. His projects now include not only comics, he also collaborates with well-known directors cinemas such as Fellini with whom he works at manifest of “City of women”, but also with numerous artists for whom he realizes disc covers.
Added to this is also the passion for painting which leads him to the realization of some works currently collected in the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Bologna. This strong concentration on work leads him to achieve great fame, but unfortunately it also brings him closer to the world of drugs. Like so many in that period discovers heroin and this leads him to lose his affections and to be pointed out as a drug addict.
Andrea Pazienza and the last years of his life
He moved to Montepulciano in 1984 after a long period of apparent detoxification and he meets a colleague he falls in love with and marries. He also resumes working permanently by including among his projects “Linus” and also “Avaj”, his monthly supplement. The screenplay projects also continue, including that of Roberto Benigni’s “The Little Devil”. However, these are his last years as in 1988 he was found dead in his home, presumably from an overdose.
His story has become protagonist of the documentary film by Stefano Mordini entitled “Paz ’77” which represents him in the moment of making his first work. Subsequently another similar project is carried out in honor of the well-known cartoonist and painter from the Marche region.