Antonio Ligabue – The Swiss Van Gogh 2 April – 8 September 2019 Media preview: Monday, 1 April 2019, 11am Preview: Monday, 1 April 2019, 6.30pm

Press Release One hundred years ago, in May 1919, Antonio Ligabue (1899–1965, originally named Anton

Costa, and after his adoption Antonio Laccabue), who grew up in Eastern Switzerland, was

deported from his native country. After various relocations in the city of St. Gallen and the canton

of St. Gallen, the nineteen-year-old was sent “home” from his last residence in Romanshorn in the

canton of Thurgau to Gualtieri, Reggio Emilia, a home that had never been his own. Gualtieri was

the hometown of his adoptive father Bonfiglio Laccabue, whom he never met, since he was taken

away from his birth mother at nine months and put in the care of foster parents. However, Ligabue

did not have Swiss citizenship, and although Switzerland was the country of his birth, Gualtieri

remained his official hometown. Antonio Ligabue had nothing and no one in Italy. He grew up

with Swiss German and did not speak Italian. As a foreigner in Switzerland, he came to Italy, a

foreign country to him. Between all these borders, he was always the “other.” Homeless, without

connections, and without a sense of direction, he lived in the woods in a hut or a barn—wherever

he could find shelter. At the time, no one suspected that he would become a famous artist,

despite all the challenges he faced. Today he attracts large audiences in Italy as the “Italian Van

Gogh.” In his native Switzerland, however, he is almost unknown. Here he has forever remained a

foreigner. For the first time, Antonio Ligabue will now be presented in his lost homeland, and his

work will be shown in St. Gallen, where he spent the formative years of his life. One hundred years

after his deportation from Switzerland, Ligabue is now being reinterpreted as the “Swiss Van

Gogh.”

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The exhibition Antonio Ligabue: The Swiss Van Gogh is the beginning of an international

exhibition trilogy at the museum which will focus on to the “other” in art, illuminating the cultural,

sexual and gender-related, and religious facets of this theme. The wide-ranging exhibition project

will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation and the Museum im Lagerhaus.

The participation of Sandro Parmiggiani from Reggio Emilia as co-curator of the exhibition and co-

editor of this publication made it possible to assemble Ligabue’s works in Italy and realize the

exhibition. Sandro Parmiggiani knows Antonio Ligabue’s work like no other and has curated

various exhibitions and published books on the artist.

Renato Martinoni, emeritus professor of Italian modern and contemporary literary and cultural

history at the University of St. Gallen, has long researched Ligabue’s Swiss biography. For the first

time, his contribution to the exhibition and as co-editor of this catalog reveals Antonio Ligabue’s

life in eastern Switzerland, which was previously hidden away in archives.

Antonio Ligabue is usually discussed as a solitary figure, with an emphasis on the uniqueness of

his work. The exhibition at the Museum im Lagerhaus will now present Ligabue within the culture

of his homeland. This includes the tradition of “untrained masters” in peasant painting and a

contextualization of Ligabue’s artistic oeuvre within the region’s culture. Eastern Switzerland in

particular has produced a number of famous practitioners of Naive Art and Art Brut, including

Adolf Dietrich (1877–1957), Hans Krüsi (1920–1995), and Hedi Zuber (1916–1996), whose

biographies and artistic careers show a variety of parallels to Ligabue.

The first German-English publication of Antonio Ligabue, the catalogue “Antonio Ligabue - the

Swiss Van Gogh", is published by Skira to accompany the exhibition.

Programm Press Preview Monday 1 April 2019, 11am With speeches by Monika Jagfeld, museum’s director, Sandro Parmiggiani, co-curator and Renato Martinoni, University of St. Gallen. Opening Monday 1 April 2019, 6.30pm With speeches by: Peter Schorer, Foundation’s President Thomas Scheitlin, Mayor Fredy Fässler, Senior Civil Servant Silvio Mignano, Italian Ambassador Monika Jagfeld, Director Museum im Lagerhaus Sandro Parmiggiani, Co-Curator Renato Martinoni, University St. Gallen Vortrag: Dall’esilio alla patria perduta, da Gualtieri a San Gallo Tuesday 2 April 2019, 6.30pm A lecture by Sandro Parmiggiani, Reggio Emilia, Ligabue specialist and co-curator of this exhibition. This event will take place in Italian. “A kiss – Antonio Ligabue” (play) Friday 5 April 2019, 8pm Saturday 6 April 2019, 7pm The new play by award-winning Italian playmaker Mario Perrotta.

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Film Screening: Antonio Ligabue – fiction a realtà Wednesday 24 April 2019, 6pm A film by Salvatore Nocita (2009), 68 min, shown at the University St. Gallen, Room 09-112 (library building). Antonio Ligabue’s years in Switzerland (1899-1919) Tuesday 7 May 2019, 6.30pm A lecture by Renato Martinoni, professor emeritus at the University of St. Gallen and Ligabue’s biographer. In St. Gallen: on Antonio Ligabue’s trail Tuesday 21 May 2019, 6pm Tuesday 2 July 2019, 6pm A walk through “Little Venice” and the history of Italians in St. Gallen with historian and archivist Marcel Mayer (with consecutive Italian translation). Meeting point: Bahnhof St. Fiden. KKK – Kunst Kaffee Kuchen (cake coffee art): Repatriation Then, Deporation Today Sunday 30 June 2019, 3pm An explosive topic discussed and illuminated by Police Commander Bruno Zanga, former Head of the Cantonal Migration Office, and Prorector Lukas Gschwend, Professor of Law, University of St. Gallen, specialising in minority law.

Öffnungszeiten Di-Fr 14-18 Uhr Sa/So/Feiertage 12-17 Uhr open during Summer holidays 1. August closed

Press Information Press images as well as a press kit can be found on our website: www.museumimlagerhaus.ch/service/presse Anna-Maria Pfab Kommunikation Museum im Lagerhaus anna-maria.pfab@museumimlagerhaus.ch mit Unterstützung von

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Antonio Ligabue – der Schweizer Van Gogh

2 April – 8 September 2019 Press Images

Pressebilder finden Sie unter http://www.museumimlagerhaus.ch/service/presse/ Bitte fordern Sie zum Download das Login an: info@museumimlagerhaus.ch

Antonio Ligabue Autoritratto con mosche (Self-portrait with flies) Undated (1956–57) Oil on fibreboard 32,5 x 25,7cm Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Autoritratto con moto, cavalletto e paesaggio (Self-portrait with motorbike, easel and landscape) Undated (1953–1954) Oil on fibreboard 63,9 x 104cm Gustalla (Reggio Emilia), private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Caccia grossa (The big hunt) 1929 Oil on plywood 66 x 64cm Private collection ©

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Antonio Ligabue Giaguaro con gazzella e serpente (Jaguar with gazelle and snake) Undated (1948) Oil on plywood 45 x 71cm Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Volpa in fuga (Fleeing fox) Undated (1948) Oil on fibreboard 60 x 74cm Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Leone (Lion) Undated (1952–1962) Pencil on paper 45 x 48cm Santa Vittoria di Gualtieri (Reggio Emilia), Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Tigre reale (Bengal tiger) Undated (1941) China and wax crayons on paper with a header by the San Lazzaro Psychiatric Hospital of Reggio Emilia 36 x 50cm Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue Gufo con preda (Owl with prey) Undated (1957–1958) Bronze 23 x 17 x 24cm Private collection ©

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Antonio Ligabue Diligenza con cavalli (Horse stagecoach) Undated (1959–1960) Oil on fibreboard 75 x 83cm Courtesy Galleria Centro Steccata, Parma ©

Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965) Autoritratto (Self-portrait) Undated (1940-42) Oil on wood 25,5x10,5cm Private collection ©

Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965) Ritorno dal lavoro con buoi (Return from Field with Oxen) Undated (1955-56) Oil on fibreboard 58x87cm Private collection Courtesy Galleria Centro Steccata, Parma ©

Antonio Ligabue Leopardo con serpente (Leopard with snake) Undated (1955-1956) Oil on fibreboard 69,5x98cm Collezioni d’Arte Fondazione Cariparma ©