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Museo ItaloAmericano,
Building C
What does one call a man who heard voices, created an illustrated
tract that he considered a third book of the Bible, and slept
on a cot in his mother’s bedroom while she was alive
and even after her death (leaving her empty bed untouched)?
Many would call him crazy, eccentric, weird. Perhaps Achilles
Rizzoli was all of these. But he was also an artist of phenomenal
talent and vision – an "Outsider" artist who
spent his lifetime creating elaborate, finely detailed renderings
of a perfect world he would never inhabit.
"A.G. Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions"
is an exhibition of these works at the Museo ItaloAmericano.
And what works they are! In Rizzoli’s world, people became
buildings – one of his most famous works, "Kathredal,"
represents the artist’s mother. And that is appropriate.
In his life view, his mother was to him what medieval cathedrals
were to the faithful: towering symbols of safety in an uncertain
world.
What brought Achilles Rizzoli to his unique, often eccentric
view of life? He was born in Marin County in 1896 to immigrants
from the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland. The family
did not prosper, and in his teen years, it disintegrated.
His sister became pregnant out of wedlock, his elder brother
disappeared, and his father committed suicide. The young man
escaped to Oakland to study drafting. He then moved to San
Francisco with his family and found relief from his personal
misfortunes in a fascination with the elaborate building that
was happening in the city at the time – the new Beaux
Arts City Hall building and the Gothic-style Grace Cathedral,
among them. It was the period of the Panama Pacific International
Exhibition, when today’s Marina district was covered
in ornate hastily erected buildings. These temporary confections
also influenced the young draftsman.
And so it began – draftsman by day and artist by night.
He was out of work for long periods of time and eked out a
living doing odd jobs. He wrote unintelligible novels and
short stories – all rejected by publishers. And he created
his extraordinary drawings. In 1935 he distributed hand-lettered
signs around the neighborhood for a showing of his "Achilles
Tectonic Studies" in his living room. Few visitors came,
but he continued the ritual on each first Sunday in August
for five years.
In spite of these annual events, his works and his life were
largely unknown to the outside world. He lived quietly with
his mother until her death in 1937. And then he lived a lonely,
reclusive life, becoming more and more obsessed with the rendering
of his perfect utopian world. What few acquaintances he had
became the inspirations for his works. And the works were
accompanied by long, cryptic commentaries, which, bizarrely
enough, were often attributed to imaginary collaborators.
A true oddball, one might think. Yes, but one with the talent
and inspiration to create "Art" on a scale that
most people can only dream of. Who would have thought that
the hardworking, neatly dressed little draftsman would one
day be recognized as one of San Francisco’s unique characters?
Emperor Norton at a drafting table? In life, Rizzoli was not
"larger than life," as so many of the city’s
legends were, but his works certainly are.
"A.G Rizzoli: Architect of Magnificent Visions"
is on display through May 8. For more information, see the
Galleries listing and
www.museoitaloamericano.org.
– Jovanne Reilly
Image: "Irwin Peter Sicotte, Jr. Symbolically Delineated/The
Sayanpeau" by A. G. Rizzoli
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