Italian
The 2025 Memorial Award celebrates the painter from Mestre, a leading figure in Venetian landscape painting and winner of the historic 1961 edition of the Award
MESTRE (VENICE, ITALY) – The Mestre Painting Prize renews its commitment to preserving the memory of the artists who have marked the history of the competition. The 2025 Memorial Award will be dedicated to Luigi “Gigi” Candiani (1903–1963), a painter from Mestre and winner of the fourth historic edition of the Prize in 1961.
The celebration will take place on Wednesday 24 September at 6 pm with a conference at the Candiani Cultural Centre, a symbolic venue named after the artist and now the beating heart of the city’s cultural life. The meeting is part of the programme of I Mercoledì del Premio Mestre (Mestre Prize Wednesdays), launched on the occasion of the exhibition of the finalists’ works, which opened on 13 September.
Speakers will include Tiziana Agostini, a scholar of local culture, Marco Dolfin, art critic and historian, and Matteo Piccolo, curator of the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Venezia – Ca’ Pesaro. Their contributions, together with the essays in the official catalogue, will offer an in-depth look at Candiani and his role in 20th-century Venetian and Italian painting.
The tribute will culminate on 3 October at the Toniolo Theatre, during the final evening of the Prize, with the presentation of a commemorative plaque, sealing the bond between the competition and one of its most significant protagonists.
Candiani, who trained at the Ticozzi School of Art under the guidance of Urbani de Gheltof, was one of the protagonists of the first editions of the Mestre Prize, participating as a member of the Executive Committee and then as a competitor. After his untimely death in 1963, his works continued to be exhibited outside the competition until 1967/68.
La sua pittura, lirica e radicata nel paesaggio veneto, spaziava dalla Laguna di Burano alle campagne dei Colli Asolani, degli Euganei e fino al Garda. Partecipò con continuità alle collettive della Galleria Bevilacqua La Masa, alla Biennale di Venezia e alla Quadriennale di Roma, ricevendo riconoscimenti in tutta Italia.
Il critico Guido Perocco, nel catalogo del Premio Mestre 1963, lo ricordava così: “Amava profondamente la pittura, la sua pittura, alla quale credeva con fede ed ardore. Amava nella natura le liete rispondenze dell’animo… Un mondo che sembra perduto. Ed è perciò che sentiamo maggiormente la sua scomparsa.”
Con il riconoscimento a Candiani, il Premio Mestre di Pittura conferma la sua vocazione di laboratorio culturale, capace di coniugare passato e presente e di mantenere viva la memoria degli artisti che hanno contribuito a definire l’identità pittorica veneziana.
