Toti Scialoja e Pino Pascali: contrappunto

[Autom. eng. transl.] The contribution explores the dialogue between Toti Scialoja (1914-1998) and Pino Pascali (1935-1968) born in the classrooms of the academy in Rome, where Scialoja taught and Pascali enrolled in 1955-56. At this chronological point Pascali was just over twenty years old and Scialoja was already a painter known and appreciated on the international art scene, with which he established direct relationships on the occasion of his personal exhibition at the Cathrine Viviano Gallery in New York, which proved to be fundamental in bringing his painting to maturity. The feverish research on the pictorial material of these years persuaded the young students of the academy and, specifically, the young Pascali who, right from the start, confronted himself with unusual techniques and materials, from which unexpected visions full of vitality derived. If for Scialoja American trips are indispensable to emancipate his research, for Pascali the United States of America remain a mirage, returned in the fascination for the urban settings overseas, gangster films and above all the work of Jasper Johns that he has the opportunity to see at the Venice Biennale in 1964. In light of the generational distance and personal attitudes, the contribution restores the dialogue between two artists between 1955 and 1964, highlighting confluences and differences in themes, processes and imaginaries.