Pasolini in Chiaroscuro

Half a century after Pasolini's death, his legacy still pervades the diverse creative fields in which he worked; he remains a source of inspiration for filmmakers today.>This book, and the exhibition it accompanies, demonstrates how the aesthetics of the writer-director's films were developed and influenced through the prism of classical and contemporary art, with clips from Accattone, Théorème, Salò, and other films juxtaposed alongside paintings by Pontormo, Pieter Claesz, Giorgio Morandi, Fernand Léger, and Francis Bacon. It retraces Pasolini's formative years studying art history at the University of Bologna under the guidance of Roberto Longhi, who held a lasting influence on Pasolini's taste. In his films, Pasolini reappropriated classical paintings in three ways: reproducing them as "living paintings" (The Deposition of Pontormo in La Ricotta); referencing them by reworking their composition or evoking striking details (Caravaggio's Sick Young Bacchus in Accatone); or including them on set (Juan Gris's Nature morte devant une fenêtre ouverte in Salo). To complete the book, works by thirty contemporary artists such as John Waters, Jenny Holzer, William Kentridge, Tom Burr, Marlene Dumas, Cerith Wyn Evans, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Giovanni Fontana, and more demonstrate Pasolini's lasting influence on the art world.