Guido Pinzani was born in Florence on 3 January 1939. In the 1950’s he enrolled at the Liceo Artistico of Florence, where he studied sculpture under the well-known sculptor Quinto Ghermandi, an experience which would be crucial in shaping his stylistic orientation. During this period, Pinzani visited the stonecutters of the quarries of Maiano and executed his first sculptures in stone. These works recall the “caryatids” of Amedeo Modigliani, whom Pinzani greatly admires and who was the subject of his thesis. In addition to Modigliani, Pinzani was influenced by other masters: Alberto Viani, who was Pinzani’s teacher at the Accademia delle belle arti in Venice, the Austrian sculptor Fritz Wotruba and the German painter Oskar Schlemmer. Following his formal training and then a long sojourn in Germany, he began working on a series of sculptures of rōnin, those samurai who had no masters. His passion for the subject was born of his curiosity about the East, which was stimulated by the films Rashomon and Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa.
While teaching at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino and at the Liceo Artistico in Florence, Pinzani pursued his career as sculptor, which has been characterized by a series of successful exhibitions, above all at the Galleria Open Art of Prato, to which the artist has a double connection: in addition to hosting three of his solo exhibitions, the Galleria houses the Pinzani Archive. From November to December 2018, he displayed his works in the prestigious setting of the Qingdao Sculpture Museum, on the occasion of the exhibition La Via della Scultura, sponsored by the Associazione Arte e Cultura Cina e Italia.
