Patrimonio culturale dell'Emilia-Romagna

Established in 1967 after the first edition of the Prize conceived by the Luzzara-born writer, journalist, and playwright Cesare Zavattini, the museum is housed in the former Augustinian convent in the Church of the Most Holy Annunciation in Villa Superiore. It displays about 500 pieces by Italian and foreign artists, a one-of-a-kind collection of naïve art in Italy. The museum is managed by the "Un Paese" Foundation, established by the Municipality of Luzzara in 2002. Along with the exhibitions, the museum also hosts an educational workshops and photographs, drawings, and books on the history of naïve art in Italy, along with photographic projects on Luzzara ("Un paese” [A town] - "Un paese vent'anni dopo" [A town twenty years later] - "Luzzara. Cinquant'anni e più…"[Luzzara. Fifty years and more) by Paul Strand, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Cesare Zavattini, Stephen Shore, Marcello Grassi, Fabrizio Orsi and Luciano Ligabue.

The museum collects, classifies, and displays all kinds of documents on local, Italian, and international naïve art: paintings, drawings, sculptures, engravings, books, newspapers, magazines, films, photographs, catalogues, cassette tapes, and slides comprise a unique body of evidence on this 20th century art genre, which pursued the original, primitive, and untamed authenticity of artistic expression, and found a particularly fertile breeding ground in the countryside of the lower Po Plain between Parma and Reggio Emilia.
The Prize for Naïve Art was conceived by Cesare Zavattini and founded in 1967 by Renato Bolondi. This nationwide prize was originally annual, and until its 12th edition, was held either in Emilia-Romagna or Lombardy. Three different awards, the Medal of the President of the Republic, the Gold Medal, and the Tribute Hall, are bestowed by an expert jury and by the public in recognition of the unique qualities of the leading naïve artists. Participating artists cannot submit more than three works each; the works are displayed in the Zavattini Prize gallery and published in the catalogue.
Winners between 1967 and today include artists such as Carmelina Alberino, Ferruccio Bolognesi, Pietro Ghizzardi, Bruno Rovesti, Irene Ivrea, Gino Covili, Mario Bortolami, Francesco Galeotti, Graziolina Rotunno, Elena Guastalla, Maria Andruszkievicz, Bruno Colibri, Aldo Ordavo, Efisio Cadoni, Lorenzo Lovo, Alceo Poltronieri, Ivonne Melli, Giovanni Lazzarini, Luigi Pillitu, Laura Moruzzi, Albino Menozzi, Giuseppe Boschetti, Francesco Galeotti, Gianfranco Savazzi, Elena Guastalla, Brenno Benatti, Antonio Donati, Ninetto Baracchi, Enrico Fereoli, Adorno Bonciani, Antonio Montanari, Anselma Ferrari, Carlo Soricelli, Giancarlo Ferrari, Anna Antola, Aldo Verzelloni, Francesco Montruccoli, Marco Berlanda, Franca Arleoni, Rosari Lattuca, Alberto Guerzoni, Gianni Franceschini, Clara Salardi, Elio Nava, Franca Pantaleoni, Natale Fornasari, Silvano Peruzzi, Narciso Bononi, Massimo Giovanelli, Maria Rita Brunazzi, Ivo Spaggiari “Pantaleone”, Eugenio Floreancig “Eughen”, Franca Giovannini and Carlo Moretti.
Thanks to the prize, the museum acquired works by Carmelina Alberino, Ferruccio Bolognesi, Enzo Pontiroli, Fernando De Angelis, Norberto Proietti, Eugenio Pieraccini, Maria Grazia Ceselin, Carlo Sartori, Benito Beltrami, Graziolina Rotunno, Antonio Donati, Bruno Bricoli, Annunziata Scipione, Amelia Pardo, Marisa Gramola, Belluzza Vergara, Nino Giovanni Brescia, Ferruccio Carretti, Sergio Subazzoli, Dino Daolio (Duren), Roberto Sguanci, Paolo Bedoni, Mario Bagat, Giovanni Canonica, Mario Ortolani, Salvatore Carmagno, Albino Bertagna, Angelo Galli, Elio Nava, Antonio Capuzzo, Fausto Bianchini, Franca Arleoni, Franco Mora, Cesare Novi, Guido Vedovato, Giovanni Canonica Murales Naïfs Itinerant Group.
Works by Ugo Astarita, Enrico Fereoli, Alceo Poltronieri and Pietro Ghizzardi have been donated to the museum, while a piece by Antonio Ligabue is held on temporary loan.
The 34th edition of the Prize for Naïve Art marked a turning point for two reasons: the change to a bi-annual schedule and the internationally-renowned jury that assigned the main prize to the Trento-born artist Andrea Fusaro, and also awarded works by Rina Becchi (Il fascino del mare [The spell of the sea], Onelia Maccari (Ramo di melo con papaveri [Apple branch with poppies]) Giuseppe Marcotti (Filare di gelsi [Row of mulberry trees], Angela Martini (Manifestazione per la pace [March for peace]), and Antonio Motta (The intellectual [L'intellettuale]).
Also in 2004, along with the Prize, a major retrospective on Ottone Rosai was held, followed in 2005 by a personal exhibition by Giuseppe Serafini, a tribute to the Modena-born artist Lucietta Righetti (Mille Grazie Lucietta Righetti [A thousand times thank you, Lucietta Righetti) and Alberto Betroldi’s, Equivalents, curated by Benedetta Alfieri.
In 2006 an exhibition called La bestia ingenua [The naive beast] was held, featuring photographs by Matteo Beltrami, Marco Bolognesi, Bortolami, Bricoli, Gino Covili, Fereoli, Simona Galeotti, Pietro Ghizzardi, Marcello Grassi, Ottavio Lattuca, Lovo, Nerone, Rotunno, Antenore Rovesti and Luigi Serafini.
Sculptors who distinguished themselves during the second half of the 20th century include Lorenzo Lovo, Andrea Mozzali, Efisio Cadoni, Ferruccio Carretti, Sergio Subazzoli, Franco Montanari, Anselma Ferrari, Antonio Montanari, Carlo Soricelli, Serafino Valle, Ivo Spaggiari (Pantaleone), Angelo Galli, Clauro Bussei, Giancarlo Ferrari, Alberto Guerzoni, Ernesto Lojero and Franca Arleoni.
On the tenth anniversary of the prize, the town of Luzzara and the Zavattini Museum broadened the scope of their activities with the 66>77 project, which aimed to match naïve painting with contemporary photography by exhibiting works by Bolognesi, Ghizzardi, Proietti and Alberino. The same period saw the launch of Il padiglioncino dei nuovissimi [The pavilion of brand new artists], with two sections: the main one is housed in the Naïve Art Museum, and matches photographs with the paintings that inspired them, while the other is in the Zavattini Cultural Centre and features notes and photographs by artists such as Benedetta Alfieri, Maurizio Cavazzoni, Tommaso Perfetti and Emanuela Reggiani, Stefano Cecchi, Giuseppe Da Valle, Gianni Franceschini, Giuseppe Gavazzi, Ezechiele Leandro, Roberto Maddaleni, Francesco Maiolo, Luigi Peverada, Graziolina Rotunno Campori, Beppe Serafini and Marina Zen.
The 2007 Prize, under the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Government and the Province of Reggio Emilia, has divided the exhibition into two sections: one on participating artists, and the other on invited artists, including Franca Arleoni, Natale Fornasari, Andrea Fusaro, Franco Corrado Pau, Toni Roggeri, Udo Toniato, Serafino Valla and Guido Vedovato.
The exhibitions are coupled with an intense schedule of conferences, lectures, roundtables, and screenings, such as one on Pasolini and film notes (Appunti per un film sull’India, 1968, 34’). Finally, the former Augustinian Convent has also hosted Vittore Fossati’s personal exhibition Viaggio in un paesaggio terrestre + 10 fotografie a Luzzara [Journey through a terrestrial landscape + 10 photographs in Luzzara]