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"A. G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions," a traveling show organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, features the work of the reclusive draftsman who depicted people he knew as buildings-particularly his mother, who appears as Mother Symbolically Represented/The Kathedral (courtesy Museum of American Folk Art) |
| Rizzoli (1896-1981), a lifelong virgin who slept in a cot at the
foot of his mother's bed, was a seer of visions. by Christine Liotta From the ideal cities depicted in medieval illuminated manuscripts to Rem Koolhaas's recent theoretical projects, the history of architecture is replete with visionaries who have created architectural fantasies. A current exhibition at New York's Museum of American Folk Art adds another name to this roster--that of Achilles G. Rizzoli. Organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, "A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions," on view in New York through March 8th, introduces the enigmatic renderings produced by the reclusive, obscure draftsman, in the first-ever museum survey of his work. Rizzoli (1896 -1981), a lifelong virgin who slept in a cot at the foot of his mother's bed, was a seer of visions. He worked for nearly 40 years for a small San Francisco architecture firm; nights and weekends he labored secretly, creating exquisite ink drawings. The exhibition focuses on approximately 85 of those sketches, which were discovered in a garage in 1990, almost 10 years after his death. The most striking of them depict fantastic architectural monuments like Gothic cathedrals, skyscrapers, and domes that Rizzoli drew as symbolic portraits of people he knew--particularly his mother, whom he reverentially depicted as a cathedral each year on the occasion of her birthday. Mother Symbolically Recaptured/The Kathredal, drawn just after her death in 1937, is a riotous fantasy composed of outrageous towers, spires, columns, statuary, and staircases adorned with hundreds of trumpeting cupids and gargoyles. For all their extraordinary detail, richness, and clarity, Rizzoli's drawings only superficially represent public spaces. According to the exhibition's curator, Jo Farb Hernandez, "In reality they depicted private, symbolic sanctuaries." Rizzoli created drawings that were as strange as his outward life, but his work reminds us of an important truth--that personal faith (even in the form of extreme eccentricity) can be engaging, adaptive, and fruitful. |
Keywords:
A.G. Rizzoli, draftsman, renderings, art,outsider art, visionary
