In the enchanting setting of Bologna’s historic center, on September 22, 2017, Palazzo Pallavicini opened its doors for the first time with the grand exhibition “Nel segno di Manara”, curated by Claudio Curcio and promoted by the Pallavicini S.r.l group in collaboration with Comicon. This exhibition is one of the most significant ever held on the extensive and renowned artistic production of the comic artist Milo Manara. The event will enliven the rooms of the historic palace—once the seat of grandeur and court to important historical figures—until January 21, 2018, and will pay tribute to the artist with an exhibition path featuring approximately 130 works.
A father of erotic imagination, among other things, Milo Manara has revolutionized the comic book world with his unmistakable style since the 1980s, influencing and inspiring hundreds of authors across Europe, the USA, and Japan. He entered the comic book language intending to carve out his own role in society and, within forty years, has become one of the most well-known contemporary Italian authors worldwide, “capable of filling entire halls and forming lines for an autograph around all five continents” (Curcio).
The exhibition at Palazzo Pallavicini, divided into seven sections, will encompass both his comic book production and his work as an illustrator for print, cinema, and advertising: from the rarely seen pages of Un Fascio di Bombe to the exclusive preview of the pages from the second volume dedicated to Caravaggio, not yet available in bookstores. Among the masterpieces of the early volumes, the exhibition will feature pages from Il Gioco and Il Profumo dell’Invisibile, starring his alter ego Giuseppe Bergman, pages from comics created in collaboration with his friend and mentor Hugo Pratt (Manara was the only artist selected by the great Venetian author for his scripts), and those from I Borgia, created with Alejandro Jodorowsky.
The exhibition will also showcase pages from Viaggio a Tulum and Il Viaggio di G. Mastorna detto Fernet, born from the exceptional collaboration with Federico Fellini, including an exclusive series of precious drawings signed by the Rimini director, along with storyboards and notes that the meticulous Fellini sent to the young Manara as outlines for his stories. Additionally, the exhibition will present some of the more dated works, never or rarely shown to the public, such as the series of illustrations inspired by Shakespeare’s texts and the pages created for the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the birth of W. A. Mozart.
