Who are Cinema Artists?

In Pittori di Cinema we gathered together three of the things we love the most: illustration, graphic design and typography. The result was a book with 432 pages, where every detail was meticulously considered to celebrate an often neglected category of artists. We have called them Cinema Painters, to recognize and value their work as equal to that of their more famous peers.

This book is the result of the deep connection we established with the curator Maurizio Baroni, the biggest Italian collector of film posters. Maurizio opened us the doors to his vast archive, an incredibly rich collection of great value both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view.

This affinity with Maurizio allowed us to pursue this project with two very important criteria in mind: a great design freedom and the time needed to get things right.

"In “Pittori di Cinema” we put graphic design in service of content. What we did was unobtrusive, our only goal being the celebration of the artworks."

— Francesco Ceccarelli

We chose a large format, 24x34 cm. This allows readers to fully appreciate and enjoy the details and quality of the reproductions of the original sketches and posters, that we treated as true works of art.

All content was meticulously curated by Maurizio Baroni, who brought into this project his expertise, energy and wealth of memories, anecdotes and knowledge. The opening descriptions for all painters are written by the art historian Alessandra Cesselon, daughter of Angelo Cesselon, one of the most original cinema painters.

The book is prefaced by a foreword from Gian Luca Farinelli, the Director of Cineteca di Bologna, and the great Italian actor Carlo Verdone.

"Film poster artists must combine all the qualities of a painter, portrait artist, illustrator and decorator. They must have the skills and talent to easily paint thousands of portraits or works of any kind, with crowds of people or animals in motion, or elegant and imaginative decorative designs; and must possess a “lavish palette” of colours and a fertile, preferably brilliant, imagination."

— Anselmo Ballester, born in 1897

The cover title was designed by Luca Barcellona – the author of one of the opening texts – who created a customized lettering inspired to Italian films from 1970s.

A key step of the design phase was to meet some of the painters who are still alive or their heirs. Together with Maurizio, we listened to their stories and many anecdotes about the life and works of these outstanding artists. This was a great opportunity for us to share and compare experiences for our personal enrichment.

Undoubtedly, the crucial elements that helped us achieving a success beyond our expectations were a deep connection and an ongoing mutual dialogue.

On June 29, 2018, we presented the book Pittori di Cinema during the festival “Il cinema ritrovato” in Bologna, Italy, together with Maurizio Baroni, Renato Casaro, Alessandra Cesselon, Francesco Ceccarelli and Andrea Mi.

For the launch, we developed the website pittoridicinema.it, where you can preview the book content and follow related events.