Maria Camilla Pallavicini
She was born on 29 December 1940, during the war. Her father, a pilot, was shot down over the sea of Gibraltar before she was born. As a member of the resistance her mother was often away, forced to hide to avoid being captured by the Germans.
Ever since she was a small child, and throughout her childhood and adolescence, she lived surrounded by the masterpieces in the Art Gallery in Palazzo Pallavicini, one of the most beautiful private galleries in Europe. Those works inspired a love of art which then grew and blossomed as she travelled, noting all that she saw and considered beautiful in the many museums to which she was taken as part of her education.
When she finished high school in 1957 she enrolled in the Faculty of Science of Public Opinion at the Pro Deo, now LUISS University of Rome. She attended the Course on Journalism and then worked in an agency specialised in emigration problems which meant she was often abroad working on numerous enquiries.
A serious accident in the summer of 1959 kept her in bed for six months; afterwards she had to cut back on her activities and in early 1960 began to focus on her drawing skills at Mrs. Lipinsky’s studio in Via Margutta, Rome.
It was around this time that thanks to the gallery owner Friedrich Weltz she learnt that Oskar Kokoschka had opened a School of Seeing at the Festung in Salzburg. She contacted the school, received a positive answer, and immediately enrolled in the Summer Academy which she attended for three years running from 1960 to 1962. This intense experience opened her eyes and radically changed her life. The festung was a real hotbed, with hundreds of students from all over the world and models whose poses in motion changed every fifteen minutes so that the students were forced to capture the fleeting moment. In fact, they should use watercolour in order not to have second thoughts. When she arrived to Salzburg she was like a “clean slate”, but after three years at the school she was honoured by being awarded the second prize from amongst all Kokoschka’s students.
In the spring of 1962 she also went to Madrid, Spain, where she worked side by side with the painter Benjamin Palencia. Every morning they would visit a town in the Castille or La Manche region, look at what it had to offer in the way of beauty and then, sitting on a stone or on the grass, they would paint until sunset before returning home to enjoy an evening of Flamenco song and dances.
Upon returning to Rome she attended the courses on Nude at the Fine Arts Academy in Via Ripetta, under the watchful eye of Lino Bianchi Barrivera.
Then, due to family issues, in 1965 she had to begin to manage her own heritage. This took up a lot of her time and forced her to overcome several difficult moments. Her work at the time involved real estate, finance, agriculture and the tertiary industry.
Nevertheless, she continued to paint, albeit at a slower pace.
In September 1982 her pastels were displayed during her first solo exhibition at the Galleria Graziussi in Venice, opposite the La Fenice Theatre.
Other solo exhibitions include the ones held in February 1983, April 1985 and May 1987 in Rome, at Carmine Siniscalco’s “Studio S”, and then at Palazzo Massari in Ferrara in May-June 1986.
She has also exhibited abroad: at the A.S.C.B.E. Association in Strasburg in 1991 and the Nour Foundation in New York in 1992.
In 1998 her last solo exhibition was held at the International Institute for Contemporary Art in Rome.
She has recently participated in several group shows in Italy including: Percorsi di Arte in Italia 2015 at the Mitreo Iside in Rome (2015); GenerAzioni a Confronto at Palazzo Sforza Cesarini in Genzano (2015); the 43rd Premio Sulmona at the Polo Museale Civico Diocesano of Sulmona, (2016); Periscopio sull’Arte in Italia at the Ducal Castle in Corigliano Calabro again in 2016, and in the late 2016 again at “Studio S” in Rome. Finally in 2017 she participated in the 2nd edition of GenerAzioni a Confronto which was held at the Old Printing Press of the Monumental Library in the Abbey of St. Nilus in Grottaferrata.
For over twenty years Maria Camilla Pallavicini has also been involved with culture in her capacity as the President of the Athenaeum N.A.E. Association, a cultural and humanitarian association that organises studies and researches focusing on the universal principles of ethics applied to various fields of human activities. As President she works with some of the most authoritative teachers and researchers and with Italian and foreign dignitaries and agencies. Athenaeum N.A.E primarily targets youngsters in high school; it organises University meetings about the principles of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights or the Charter of Nice, in other words about: Dignity, Freedom, Justice, Solidarity, Citizenship and Equality. Atheneum NAE. also screens films at Rome’s Casa del Cinema followed by a debate with film directors on the topics discussed at the meetings. Maria Camilla Pallavicini collaborated with Mons. Samuele Sangalli at LUISS University within his courses on Ethics of professions. She is involved with health and prevention issues as part of her collaboration with the Fatebenefratelli Hospital of Rome on such topics as alcohol and drug dependence, substance abuse, and food-related pathologies. Finally, she organises courses on bullying and cyberbullying for students, teachers and parents. She organises scientific conferences on topical issues and also sponsors and supports humanitarian projects.
In 2018, her works were displayed during her solo exhibition at the Galleria Vittoria in Rome, directed by Tiziana Todi, entitled “Le geometrie degli stati d’animo”, with an introduction by Prof. Giorgio Di Genova.
Together with the Galleria Vittoria she took part in several group shows in Warsaw and at Aranciera di San Sisto in Rome.
She also held a solo exhibition at Gangemi.
At the Galleria Vittoria (via Margutta 103, Rome) her solo exhibition “Il vocabolario cromatico” (“The Chromatic Vocabulary”) was displayed from 12/4/2023 to 1/6/2024.