EXHIBITION PATH VILLA MUSEUM PAOLINA BONAPARTE

1) FEATURES AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION IN THIS LOCATION AND OTHER LOCATIONS IN VIAREGGIO

2) NEWS ABOUT THE VILLA MUSEUM PAOLINA BONAPARTE

3) DESCRIPTION OF THE EXHIBITION PATH ON THE GROUND FLOOR

4) DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE TO GET TO THE ATELIER CATARSINI IN THE ATTIC OF THE NORTH SIDE TOWER.

5) INSIGHTS INTO ATELIER CATARSINI AND WHAT THEY WROTE ABOUT HIM

6) THE EXHIBITION SPREAD THROUGH THE STAGES OF THE PATH “THE PLACES OF CATARSINI”

7) ACCESSIBLE ART FOR ALL, THE MULTI-YEAR PROJECT OF THE CATARSINI FOUNDATION

8) COLLECTION OF THE CATARSINI FOUNDATION IN VIAREGGIO

9) CONTACTS AND GUIDED TOURS BY APPOINTMENT

THEY WROTE ABOUT CATARSINI AND THE CATHARSISM

TRAVELING EXHIBITION

IL NOVECENTO DI CATARSINI. DALLA MACCHIA ALLA MACCHINA

EXHIBITION PATH

VILLA MUSEUM PAOLINA BONAPARTE

from July 25 to August 24, 2025

THE EXHIBITION CONTINUES IN THE STAGES OF THE PLACES

OF CAMMINO I LUOGHI DI CATARSINI

Index of topics:

1) Characteristics and information on the exhibition here and on the widespread exhibition

2) News on the villa museum Paolina Bonaparte

3) Description of the exhibition path on the ground floor

4) Description of the path to get to the Atelier Catarsini in the attic of the north-side turret

5) In-depth information on the Atelier Catarsini

6) The widespread exhibition in the stages of the Path the places of Catarsini

7) Accessible Art for All, the multi-year project of the Catarsini Foundation

8) Catarsini Foundation Collection in Viareggio, visits guided tours by appointment

9) Contacts and guided tours by appointment

10)

1) FEATURES AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION IN THIS LOCATION AND OTHER LOCATIONS IN VIAREGGIO

The traveling exhibition arrives in Viareggio, Catarsini’s hometown, and becomes a widespread exhibition with 3 locations in the city and 8 other locations in the extra-urban stages of the Cammino I luoghi di Catarsini. The route outside the city is illustrated on the totem positioned on the sidewalk at the entrance to the Villa Paolina Bonaparte Museum and on the leaflet at the entrance.

The widespread exhibition is designed to be an immersive experience accessible to all, especially to people with visual impairments, and is part of the broader multi-year project of the Catarsini Foundation, “Accessible Art for All”. This project aims to break down barriers in artistic enjoyment, and accessibility is guaranteed by the use of adapted descriptions and audio recordings in Italian and English of the works, explanatory panels and photos, available via QR codes.

Another significant innovation is the Experiential Laboratory. Here, participants can deepen their understanding of the work through listening and direct tactile interaction. There is also the opportunity to touch a full-scale tactile work that reinterprets an exhibited work. This approach allows all visitors to stimulate touch and hearing, promoting a fully inclusive enjoyment of art.

In Viareggio, 48 works are exhibited in 3 different locations:

– 20 works in two rooms on the ground floor of the Villa Museo Paolina Bonaparte.

– 12 works in the attics of the turret on the north side of the same building, where the Catarsini atelier is located, re-arranged like the original in 2002 with the historical archive, easels and period furniture.

– one work is exhibited in the sanctuary of the S.S. Annunziata

– 15 works are in the Marconi Library and are part of the 30 works donated by the Family to the Municipality of Viareggio in 2000.

2) NEWS ABOUT THE VILLA MUSEUM PAOLINA BONAPARTE

The Villa Museo Paolina Bonaparte in Viareggio is a building of considerable historical and architectural interest. Built in 1822 to a design by architect Giovanni Lazzarini, it was commissioned for Paolina Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister, who however lived there for a very short period. The villa was conceived with delicate neoclassical forms, and was originally located directly on the seashore, whose position at the time was much further forward than the current coastline. The design of the building was carefully studied to ensure a continuous visual and climatic relationship between the main rooms, the sea and its winds and the large garden.

The interiors, embellished with delightful period frescoes, have been restored, allowing visitors today to wander through its rooms and imagine the refined life that was led there.

After Paolina’s death, the villa was inherited by her sister Carolina Murat. Over the course of its history, the building has gone through various events, also hosting a middle school, before becoming municipal property. Currently, the Villa Museo Paolina Bonaparte serves as a venue for exhibitions and conferences, consolidating its role as a cultural center. On the side of the villa that faces the sea is Piazza Shelley, where one of the few monuments dedicated to the great English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is preserved, whose body was found on the beach in the Due Fosse area, not far from the villa.

The Villa Museo permanently houses the Blanc Archaeological Museum, on the ground floor, the Giuffreda collection of musical instruments, on the first floor and the Catarsini Atelier in the attics of the turret on the north side of the building.

The rooms on the first floor are used for conferences and exhibitions and of these, those that overlook Piazza Shelley, are frescoed and furnished with period furniture.

3) DESCRIPTION OF THE EXHIBITION PATH ON THE GROUND FLOOR

Two Exhibition Halls and the Experiential Laboratory

The ground floor of this building is a vibrant hub that includes not only exhibition spaces, but also areas dedicated to reception and the archaeological museum.

As soon as you cross the large entrance door, you enter the main atrium. Immediately on the left is the custodian’s desk, where you can find catalogues, flyers and information material on the history of the Palace. The atrium extends for over 20 metres, reaching the door that leads to the garden. At that distance from the entrance, on the right, are the toilets.

To reach the conference room and the exhibition rooms, the path involves continuing for about 7 metres in the atrium. On the left is the entrance to the Blanc Archaeological Museum, while turning right 45 degrees, and walking about 5 meters, you enter the stairwell where, on the right are the doors to the offices, on the left the elevator and a little further on, after another 4 meters on the left, the staircase that leads to the first floor.

On the right, with respect to the staircase, there is a door. Crossing it, you find yourself in the conference room of about 15 meters long by 5 meters wide. This room is furnished with chairs and a conference table at the back, and is the designated place for the inaugurations and meetings that enliven the exhibition period.

At the beginning of the conference room, on the right wall, there is a door that leads you to the first exhibition room. This room, like the second one which is communicating, measures about 5 meters per side and the works are hung on the four walls.

Once you enter the first room, walking along the right wall, you arrive at the corner where the Experiential Laboratory is set up with a tactile terracotta bas-relief, created by Francesco di Lernia. This reinterpretation of the work “Nudo di dietro”, also exhibited in the room, was specifically designed to be explored by touch by people with visual impairments. It is interesting to note that this creation won the XXII edition of the Catarsini Prize 2024 and was exhibited for four months at the prestigious Museo Tattile Statale Omero in Ancona. After the exhibition in this exhibition, it will be permanently placed in the permanent Experiential Laboratory in the Catarsini Atelier.

The visit to the first room continues with the exploration of the works exhibited on the other walls.

To access the second exhibition room, from the first room, follow the right wall, pass the Experiential Laboratory station and, after about 4 meters, you find the access door. The second room has the same characteristics as the first, with works distributed on all the walls.

Each exhibited work is accompanied by tags with two QR codes. By scanning them, you can listen to audio descriptions of the work and other information in Italian and English, adapted for people with visual impairments but designed to enrich the experience of all visitors.

To return to the exit, you must return to the first room, then to the conference room and finally, through the entrance door, to the room where the staircase and the elevator are located.

4) DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE TO GET TO THE ATELIER CATARSINI IN THE ATTIC OF THE NORTH SIDE TOWER.

Going up to the First Floor

To go up to the first floor you can choose between the elevator and the staircase. Going up the staircase there are 29 steps. Each step is 70 cm wide, 19 cm high and 30 cm deep. The staircase is divided into three flights with a handrail on the right: The first flight has 10 steps, followed by a landing. Turning right, there is a second flight of 9 steps and, after another landing, turning right again, there are the last 10 steps.

Orienting yourself on the First Floor

Once you reach the first floor and continuing forward on the large gallery you will find the various rooms of Paolina Bonaparte, frescoed and furnished. Our route instead is oriented on the opposite side of the building and involves keeping to the right following the balustrade for about 3 meters. Then, turning right again, you walk another 4 meters with the balustrade on the right until it stops. This leads to the door leading to the rooms on the first floor where an exhibition may be in progress. For this reason, it is strongly recommended to ask the security staff for directions. The reason is that to reach the Atelier you have to cross 3 exhibition spaces which, depending on the installations, may present some obstacles that could make the route less intuitive.

The Exhibition Rooms on the First Floor and Access to the Atelier

Once you have passed this door, you cross the first room which is about 15 meters long. By walking along it entirely and turning 45 degrees to the left, you enter the first of two communicating rooms, each about 5.50 meters long.

At the end of the second room, on the left, there is a door 60 cm wide. This leads to the landing of a small staircase, perfectly contained within the turret, which starts from the internal courtyard on the ground floor and leads up to the Atelier.

The Staircase of the Turret for the Atelier

This staircase, which rises from the internal courtyard where Catarsini parked his bicycle, occupies the entire internal space of the turret; it is not spiral, but made up of small ramps interspersed with small landings.

Starting from the first floor, we only go up the last ramps for a total of 17 steps, each 70 cm wide, 19 cm high and 30 cm deep, with a handrail on the right, like the orientation of the climb. The landings measure 78 x 78 cm. Although small, the staircase can be climbed safely by being able to lean on the handrail on the right and on the wall on the left

The distribution of the steps is as follows:

First ramp: 3 steps and a small landing.

Second flight: 4 steps and a small landing.

Third flight: 3 steps and a small landing.

Fourth flight: 4 steps and a small landing.

Fifth and final flight: 3 steps and the last small landing on which the entrance door to the Atelier opens directly.

Entrance to the atelier

Staying on the landing and looking up to the left of the entrance door, on the wall there is a sign that reports a phrase by Catarsini: Whoever enters honors me, whoever does not enter does me a favor, which welcomes visitors with a touch of the artist’s personality, suggesting his somewhat reserved and disenchanted spirit. After a single step, you find the first of the two rooms that make up the Atelier. This path leads to the creative heart of Catarsini, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves in his artistic atmosphere.

The interior is large and bright, divided into two communicating rooms, each measuring approximately 5.5 x 7 meters. The walls are white, the ceiling has exposed beams also white, and the floor is covered in traditional terracotta tiles.

In the first room, documents, books and newspapers are kept that recall the life and work of Catarsini and his historical archive. Along the walls there are filing cabinets about 90 centimeters high, with glass shelves, photographs and documents are arranged in the display cases.

In the center, a square table of one and a half meters per side with some binders of newspapers and photos and the guest book. On the walls, exhibition posters and many photos. Four small windows on the walls to the right of the entrance overlook the internal courtyard, two are in the first room and two in the second.

The second room is the real beating heart of the atelier, faithfully reproducing the environment in which Catarsini created.

Going beyond the connecting door located at the end of the right wall when entering the first room, a space opens up, divided as follows: a sort of open corridor about 4.5 meters long and 2 meters wide runs along the right wall where, hanging on the wall between the two windows, you can appreciate drawings from various eras and subjects (portraits, fantastic drawings, landscapes, interior of the Atelier). On the left, separated by two red dividing cords with 2 metal columns each separated in the center to allow entry, opens up the space set up with two easels, chairs, palettes, colors, brushes, a table with his Olivetti 22 typewriter, two chests without drawers, on which sculptures, tools, sheets of paper rest. On the walls some empty frames, some shelves with books and old family photos, and the green armchair, portrayed in many works; a sort of “orderly confusion” that however reproduces very well the atmosphere that could be felt when the artist worked there, received guests, prepared the shipping crates, wrote.

The atelier therefore offers a deep immersion in the world of Catarsini, allowing one to perceive not only his works, but also the intimate environment and the tools that gave life to his art.

It should be noted that there is the possibility of touching everything that the rooms contain. However, to ensure a respectful and safe use, it is required to be guided by an assistant who can illustrate the objects and allow a complete and safe tactile exploration for conservation, making the experience even more immersive and accessible.

5)  INSIGHTS INTO ATELIER CATARSINI AND WHAT THEY WROTE ABOUT HIM

The atelier is a true sanctuary of the artist’s memory, re-arranged and opened to the public in 2002, it preserves his important archive and the unmistakable traces of his work and life.

Catarsini moved here after his previous studio in the Palazzo Comunale in Via Regia was destroyed during the Second World War.

Here you can find:

12 Original drawings and posters of his exhibitions, a unique opportunity to observe his technique and vision up close.

Two easels, Brushes and colors: the essential tools of the trade.

Documents, photos, catalogs, articles and art books that narrate his long career. And that offer glimpses of the artist’s life and his workspace.

Letters, diplomas and honors that attest to his successes and contacts.

A table with his typewriter: also suggesting his intellectual and literary activity. By visiting this space, it is possible to reconstruct the multifaceted personality of Catarsini, a painter but also a man of letters and a careful and sensitive man of culture. The archive holds the manuscripts of his stories, the drafts of his two novels (one of which was recently republished by La Nave di Teseo), his diaries and the articles he wrote for years for newspapers and cultural magazines. In special folders, newspapers from the 1930s onwards are kept that document his exhibitions and countless news on the artistic and cultural life of the twentieth century.

Of particular interest is the complete collection of catalogues and brochures of his numerous exhibitions since 1927, as well as the catalogues of artists linked to him and the vast correspondence he maintained with colleagues and influential figures. The photographs, of him and his family, together with the images of his exhibitions (from the first in the 1930s to the last anthology in 1991), complete a detailed picture of his existence.

The archive, constantly updated, contains all the documentation found so far on the artist. The charm of these rooms lies in the atmosphere that can still be felt within the walls: observing his personal objects and the traces of color on the walls, one can feel the depth and sincerity of the artistic research to which Alfredo Catarsini dedicated his entire existence.

This atelier is not only a museum, but a place that allows you to still feel the presence of Catarsini and understand his essence. A truly unique experience for those who want to delve deeper into his figure.

6) THE EXHIBITION SPREAD THROUGH THE STAGES OF THE PATH “THE PLACES OF CATARSINI”

The present exhibition dedicated to Alfredo Catarsini is not limited to this location, but extends to include all 60 works including those in the other stages of the “PATH” The places of Catarsini, a route made up of 3 circular itineraries to discover the artist’s works in different locations between Lucca, Val Freddana, Versilia, Viareggio and the shores of Lake Massaciuccoli.

Then, starting from here, the exhibition continues in other locations in the city and outside the city

Descriptions of all the works, adapted and audio recorded in Italian and English designed for people with visual disabilities but useful to all visitors, are in the QR codes of the leaflet Exhibition spread throughout the stages of the Path The places of Catarsini divided by location and exhibition venues.

The leaflet is located at the entrance to the Palace.

Summer 2025 – Subdivision of the 80 Works visible in public buildings:

The 60 works in total are distributed between:

Viareggio:

Villa Museo Paolina Bonaparte: Here is the current exhibition with a significant selection of 20 works and a focus on the Atelier, the historical archive and the 12 works of the artist permanently hosted in this location.

Biblioteca Comunale G. Marconi (at Palazzo delle Muse): 15 works, on rotation, from the donation of 30 works made by Catarsini’s children to the Municipality of Viareggio.

Santuario della S.S. Annunziata, an altarpiece from 1948

In the other 8 Stages of the “Cammino”

Cammino I Luoghi di Catarsini is a route conceived by the Catarsini Foundation and created in collaboration with the Touring Club Italiano. Opened in spring 2023, this Path connects Lucca to Versilia passing through Val Freddana and currently includes 8 stages in total and 11 exhibition venues where 44 works are exhibited. To these will soon be added the ninth stage of Seravezza, the lead Municipality, currently under construction.

The Viareggio stage is marked by a totem at the entrance to the Villa Museo Paolina Bonaparte. This Path is the only one in Italy that is also entirely accessible to people with visual disabilities, who can download audio recordings (Italian and English) via QR codes in relief on the totems and on the tags next to the works in the exhibition venues. The Path, reported by Mons. Paolo Giulietti Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Lucca for the Jubilee of Hope, was presented at the Jubilee of Disabilities in Rome in April 2025

These stages represent the heart of the widespread exhibition, creating an artistic and cultural itinerary. The Walk was designed to connect various significant points of the territory linked to the life and work of Catarsini. In addition to Viareggio, the locations included in this route are:

Lucca (Palazzo Orsetti): starting and finishing point of the walk with 5 works.

Castagnori (Romanesque Church of San Tommaso Apostolo), cycle of 2 frescoes from 1945

San Martino in Freddana (Church of San Martino Vescovo), cycle of 3 frescoes from 1944

Camaiore (Town Hall and Museum of Sacred Art) with 6 works

Pietrasanta (Spazio Arte BVLG and Liceo Artistico Stagio Stagi) with 2 works

Forte dei Marmi (Villa Bertelli): Significant works are exhibited here, including works that have participated in important awards (5 works)

Massarosa (Antico Opificio La Brilla): This stop features 3 works that recall the countryside and Lake Massaciuccoli, places dear to Catarsini.

Seravezza (under construction): Recently, Seravezza was added to this route as a lead Municipality, indicating a further expansion of the exhibition. One work will be exhibited at Palazzo Mediceo, further enriching the itinerary.

7) ACCESSIBLE ART FOR ALL, THE MULTI-YEAR PROJECT OF THE CATARSINI FOUNDATION

The widespread exhibition dedicated to Alfredo Catarsini represents the strong commitment of the Alfredo Catarsini Foundation 1899 towards accessibility and inclusiveness for all. It is not a temporary exhibition with a fixed closing date but an artistic path that is permanently integrated into the territory.

With the exception of those exhibited in the two rooms on the ground floor of this Palace until August 24, 2025, all the other works in the stages of the “Cammino I Luoghi di Catarsini” are always visible, simply following the ordinary opening hours of the buildings that host them, such as libraries, museums, public buildings and churches. This means that Catarsini’s art is available to the public without specific time limits.

A fundamental point is the attention paid to people with disabilities. The entire “Cammino” and all the exhibition venues have been designed to be accessible not only to people with physical disabilities, but especially to those with visual disabilities. For the latter, audio guides are available with adapted descriptions that allow for a deep and sensorial exploration of the works. In addition, the Experiential Laboratories have been implemented that offer interactive and tactile ways of enjoying art.

In short, this exhibition offers anyone a truly unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the art of Alfredo Catarsini. It is an experience that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional museums, connecting art to the territory of Viareggio and its surroundings, and making it a living cultural heritage accessible to everyone, at any time.

8) COLLECTION OF THE CATARSINI FOUNDATION IN VIAREGGIO

The Alfredo Catarsini 1899 Foundation is located in the Artist’s home in the Marco Polo district. Not far away is the square named after him.

The venue can be visited by appointment and you can admire a large collection of works. The annual “Anteprime” review is held here.

9) CONTACTS AND GUIDED TOURS BY APPOINTMENT

In addition to the widespread exhibition spaces, you can visit the Catarsini Foundation collection directly at its headquarters in Viareggio, in Via Palermo, 4 where free guided tours are booked, offering a more intimate and in-depth experience.

To book a visit or for any additional information on:

Guided tours

Accessible itineraries, Art, nature and tourism

Adapted descriptions and audio guides for exhibitions, museum itineraries, tourist tours (available in various languages)

Consultations – sign up for the newsletter

Contact the Foundation:

By email: info@fondazionecatarsini.com

By phone: +39 342 1684031

Website: www.fondazionecatarsini.com

10. THEY WROTE ABOUT CATARSINI AND THE CATHARSISM

Cristina Acidini writes:

My visit to the Catarsini studio dates back to 2013, when the re-installation project had just been successfully concluded: a long and demanding project, strongly desired and brought to fruition with tenacity at the instigation of Elena Martinelli, the painter’s granddaughter, in the ten years following her grandfather’s death. And which has its counterpart, not immediately visible, but commendable, in the inventory work carefully carried out on the original documents of the Catarsini Archive, while for the artist’s work, the public and private collections that conserve his paintings are complements, first of all the one in the Marco Polo district. In this regard, I have a fond memory of the arrival of Catarsini’s Self-Portrait of 1934 in the famous collection of the Uffizi Gallery, which took place in 2005, shortly before I took over as Superintendent of the Polo Museale Fiorentino (from 2006 to 2014).

Only from the photographs, also meticulously catalogued in the Catarsini Archive, can one get an idea of ​​the abandonment into which the studio had fallen, only a few years after the death of its occupant. Some black and white shots from 1999 show its painful desolation: leaks from the roof slopes, piles of debris, furniture in disarray; even the iconic green armchair, present in several portraits, lay overturned and dusty. For the laborious restoration, the numerous black and white and color photos served as a guide, as did, no less, the personal memories of his granddaughter Elena, who shared many moments of her grandfather’s life, participating in creative and social moments. If we want to align the photos in a hypothetical chronological sequence, albeit with wide margins of uncertainty, a fascinating personal and artistic story flows before our eyes between the post-war period and the 1990s, fifty years in which Italy and the world changed, an iron curtain was drawn and dissolved, a wall was erected to separate the two Europes of East and West and fell, hot and cold wars, protests and restorations took place… but the artist’s studio has remained the same, with the imprint of the creative personality, which organizes spaces and objects according to the unfathomable logic of individual times: the moment of reading and study, of drawing and painting, of reflection on the model or of the encounter with the visitor, the latter welcomed, as the inscription at the entrance jokingly states, with courtesy but without excessive enthusiasm.

In the early years, the photos of the atelier, which included two attic rooms lit by skylights, show the fresh and rigorous order of the recent arrangement: the immaculate whiteness of the still bare walls, of the newly whitewashed beams and tiles of the roof, the sparse and rarefied distribution of the paintings on the walls, in which the suggestion of Lorenzo Viani, tutelary deity of so much Viareggio painting, can still be read clearly and powerfully. Catarsini also presents himself as an icon of post-war rationalism, which has its roots so deeply in the style between the two wars: the lean and athletic physique, the thick black hair disciplined by the comb, the tanned face modeled by severe concentration, the striped T-shirt like Picasso or a beachgoer. Marco Taglioli wrote about him in 1955: “He is thin, we would say dry, with a sharp nose on a gaunt and lively face” (Painting in Viareggio. The investigation between our artists and the main “Character”, in “Il Tirreno”, 17 November 1955, p.4). A self-portrait from 1942 is described as “strong, expressive, and supported by sober, earthy tones, which recall the great painting of the 15th century” (B.F. in Artisti nostri, Una visita allo studio del pittore Catarsini, in “Il Tirreno” of 7 August 1946)… when it was still believed that Masolino and Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel at the Carmine in Florence or Michelangelo in the vault of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican had frescoed with earth-coloured and ash-coloured pigments, and not with the palette filled with dazzling colours, which were revealed decades later by cleaning, by removing lampblack and dust. A belief that took hold of many Tuscan painters of the 20th century, starting with Ottone Rosai.

Then over the years from one photograph to another the image changes. And while the painter’s figure loses its edges and under the beret with a Parisian profile his hair turns white, while his career as a teacher and artist leads him through personal and autonomous experiments (with Simbolismo meccanico and Riflessismo, without abandoning the figure and the landscape of Viareggio), the studio takes on that lived-in aspect, crowded with tools and memories, which strikes visitors, whether they are admitted on a fresh spring morning or have to sweat in the August heat that heats up the attic. At the beginning of his occupation of the atelier, it is likely that furniture was scarce: “Everything is almost thrown on the floor: tubes of paint, books, brushes, then also about ten black and white studies […] Then frames, canvases, thrown everywhere and finally also some large fresco cartoons placed on the floor” (B.F. in Artisti nostri, Una visita allo studio del pittorica Catarsini, in “Il Tirreno” of 7 August 1946). And from the 1950s onwards, the iconography of the studio stabilizes in a subjective, suggestive, inevitable disorder: “among palettes, easels, brushes and paintings piled up everywhere, and shelves full of books, newspaper clippings, […] rooms where the noise of the city arrives as if muffled” (L.M., Note d’arte. Visita allo studio di Alfredo Catarsini, in “La Nazione italiana – Cronaca di Viareggio” of 13 March 1957, p.4). “The floor trembles under the pressure of the footsteps – Taglioli notes again – the noises of the classrooms below reach it faintly, almost a subdued buzz that overcomes the obstacle of the walls. Along the walls the usual piles of old and new paintings, arranged in a jumble…” (Painting in Viareggio. The investigation between our artists and the main “Personaggio”, in “Il Tirreno”, 17 November 1955, p.4).

Works that come and go, cartoons kept after use in fresco workshops, paintings chosen and prepared for exhibitions – in Florence, Venice, Rome and elsewhere -, paintings that return, drawings that are stratified in reams, articles, reviews, brochures (all material that seems important at the time and then ends up in a line of the curriculum or in oblivion) ​​and of course canvases, frames, tools of the trade. Painting possesses Catarsini and is present to him without giving him respite: in his portraits, a canvas painted on the easel can appear, a painting within a painting, a fragment of the Viareggio studio incorporated forever into a painting that will make its way into the world. There, the plaster on the walls becomes dull, the white paint on the roof peels off and reveals patches of wood and brick.

The continuation of the story is well known. Catarsini’s advanced age, the progressive rarefaction of his work in the studio, his death in 1993, the abandonment of the atelier, the ruin, the redemption thanks to the restoration. The new arrangement, curated by a committee of competent and responsible people, which since 2003 has delivered the atelier to the rich and fascinating sphere of “artist studios” that can be visited. English: The reorganization of the studio, as I mentioned before, goes hand in hand with the excellent inventory work of the Alfredo Catarsini Archive” curated in 2001 by the Istituto Storico Lucchese, Viareggio section, with the supervision of Raffaello Bertoli, thanks to the availability and passion of his children Mity and Orazio and in particular of Elena Martinelli, Mity Catarsini’s daughter. Letters, diaries, objects, books acquire the organized physiognomy that they never had during the painter’s life. An “inventory-documentation” section is also prepared for the studio, which in the apparent notarial neutrality, typical of lists, contains and returns the plurality of the painter’s interests and initiatives, his industriousness – rewarded in prestigious exhibitions -, his aptitude for studying the past and knowing the present, also thanks to texts whose authors include Viani, Soffici, Papini, Venturi, Marangoni…. and of course Giorgio Vasari, father of the artistic historiography.

In today’s studio, the emotion of encountering the place that holds the testimony of an artist with a strong and decisive personality is strong, with a longevity that allowed him to cross much of the twentieth century participating in its fluctuating artistic currents, in a sort of “stylistic nomadism”, according to a happy definition. The transition from use to museum has recreated, in the new terms of an ordered narration, what was an environment lived in brisk confusion. The two rooms of the amiable solitary are now open to visitors and, hopefully, to art institute students. In fact, it is especially up to young future artists to capture the lights, the atmospheres, the scents of the painter’s atelier, a type of environment that changes over the years and centuries but remains substantially unchanged in its magical nature as a theatrical stage, on which the same script is always represented: the encounter between the past – guarantor of memory even when its remains lie piled up and confused – and the future captured on the fly in the air around and outside the artist, who fixes it on paper and canvas in the present of the creative moment.

Leonida Repaci writes: Poetry of women who offer their nude to the gold of the sun, enjoying that moment that youth gives to every existence…

Raffaello Bertoli writes: It was easy to see him crossing the Burlamacca Canal on his bicycle, to go to the Darsena, and in the Darsena, it was easy to meet him when he emerged from the noisy alleys inside the shipyards or when he stopped face to face with the sea and the mirror of the port. His rich and severe palette, darting and melancholic, seems drawn precisely from the reflection of the colors on the metallic waters of the canal. And only true colors, because it was the light that created and transformed them…

Tommaso Paoloscia writes: “And then, in sudden contemplative returns, once again in the limelight that everlasting relationship between man and the sea that remains the constant guide in the reading of his timeless painting…”

Antonio Paolucci writes: “Alfredo Catarsini was in his Viareggio as if at the center of a compass rose, sensitive to Lorenzo Viani and Soffici, to Carrà and the Fauves, to Matisse, to Cézanne, to Moses Levy, to the intellectuals, the poets, the artists who met in the summer at the Quarto Platano in Forte dei Marmi… You can live in Viareggio, tell the stories of the dock and the works and days of men, in the changing light and time, and be great and true artists.”

Marilena Pasquali writes: Everything coexists in Catarsini’s painting: the seascapes next to the useless machines, the corners of the courtyard and the nuclei of pulsating forms, his microcosm is unitary and yet scattered in a thousand streams. What unites and makes each of his expressions individual is the rough, sharp, strongly compressed painting, the cut of the composition built according to rules of proven wisdom.

Franco Somi writes: An experience of the fantastic everyday that Catarsini himself indicated with the name of Riflessismo and that I would rather define as a search for ambiguity…

The results of an even fierce symbiosis between the world of man and that of the machine testify to Catarsini’s vocation not to be satisfied with a merely contemplative attitude, to his continuous search for nodes of disquiet and finally, to a mature awareness that the game is played, more than between real entities, between symbols and signs that envelop the language of modern doing

Franco Farina writes: The elements of these works of his of Simbolismo meccanico are structurally welded so much as to be emblematic of our time, but without nostalgia and regrets, as the primacy of man over the machine is never questioned.

Pier Carlo Santini writes: … an artist who through experimentation and research has intended to dig into himself, and question himself, to be sure of expressing himself with propriety and effectiveness, adhering to the needs renewed and current from time to time…

Today Catarsini explores the world of machines: archaic machines within environments saturated with fumes and smoke: wheels, pulleys, giant coils, flywheels that can be glimpsed absorbed within enigmatic signs, or that suddenly stand out among the corrupted and oozing matter. It is a way, that of Catarsini, to reiterate the solitude of man overwhelmed by that mechanism that he has created with his own hands, and of which sooner or later he ends up being a victim.

Elena Pontiggia writes: …After studying at the Art Institute of Lucca, he too had made, in 1914, the canonical trip to Paris, where, among other things, he had met Modigliani. In August 1918, when he was still in the army (after Caporetto he had been called up to war, like all the “boys of ’99”), he had met Marinetti during a leave of absence. The occasion had been the exhibition “Italian avant-garde painting”, opened at the Kursaal in Viareggio, where futurists such as Prampolini, Achille Lega, Primo Conti, but also de Chirico and Carrà, who presented their metaphysical works, and Soffici, exhibited. It is possible that Catarsini had also heard of the conference on the then almost unknown metaphysical painting, held by de Pisis, again at the Kursaal, on 27 July 1918. This contemporary knowledge of futurism and metaphysics should not be underestimated in the artist’s education. In 1919 he had instead struck up a friendship with Lorenzo Viani, to whom he would always remain close. Immediately afterwards, in 1920, he had attended the Viareggio studio of Domenico Ghiselli (the author, in 1912, of the decorations of the Kursaal), who had taught him the rudiments of fresco: a difficult technique, which at the time was not even taught in the academies, and of which Catarsini would give various examples during the two wars (in 1932 at the same Kursaal and in 1936 in the Oratory of San Giuseppe, also in Viareggio; in 1944 in the church of San Martino in Freddana; in 1945 in the church of San Tommaso in Castagnori). …. These are the years in which Catarsini frequents Il Quarto Platano in Forte dei Marmi, the meeting place where Carrà, Soffici, De Grada and other artists are regulars, but he also continues to be close to Marinetti, who in 1933 invites him to the first edition of the Premio del Golfo, founded by him, Fillia, Prampolini and Righetti in La Spezia. The artist exhibits Manovre di sbarco of 1933 which does not belong to the second futurism, as is sometimes claimed. It is rather an example of magical realism, in which the movements of the ship docking at the port, of the plane in the sky, of the sails on the sea, of the trolley on the rail are frozen in an almost enchanted immobility.

Vittorio Sgarbi writes: If there is an artist who has tried to look beyond the walls of his own town hall, looking elsewhere for stimuli to bring and develop at home, this is Catarsini. Also enjoying the favorable situation whereby elsewhere arrived directly at home without having to go looking for it, thanks to the presence in Viareggio of artists and intellectuals from all over Italy… Catarsini’s “Viaregginity”, the feeling of carnal and spiritual belonging to a certain land, to a certain humanity, to a certain overall atmosphere, made first of all of sea, sky, sun, wind, moods, smells, noises, flavors, and secondly of the entire heritage of shared sensations that these factors can imply, is an essential basis for every pictorial choice, starting from the initial one for which he decided to become an artist. What scholars must do, faithfully respecting the most proper meaning of their profession, is rather the opposite, to place the Catarsini object at the centre of their interests, in the aspect of his artistic production as well as in the evidence of extra-artistic documents capable of contributing to a better understanding of the evolution of his personality over time.

The Catharism

Catarsini is a multifaceted man, a painter and writer, he tirelessly reflects on great themes and personal identity, he responds with inventiveness to the solicitations that the world around him proposes with social and technological changes, a very current theme. And he always gives us a painting that starts from the purified essence of things, from the soul, to arrive straight to the heart of the beholder.

With the term Catharism the Foundation intends to define the painting of Alfredo Catarsini and condense the result of the substantial critical bibliography that has accompanied and supported the art of a master who has vigorously crossed the entire twentieth century, identifying certain characteristics of his work.

Catharism arises from the creative coherence of the artist and manifests itself as dryness of expression, seriousness and freedom of thought, capacity for renewal. It is an attitude to stick to the essential, whatever the subject of his works: people, things, landscapes or mechanisms. It is the courage to welcome change, demonstrated by his constant testing by experimenting with original forms and representations, as in Simbolismo meccanico.