Madre

Giovanni Paganin was born in Asiago, on the homonymous plateau in the province of Vicenza, in 1913. He worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, thanks to the help of his father, who was a master builder, at the same time creating his first sculptures in clay and plaster. In 1938 he decided to move to Milan and practice the business of sculptor. He attends the Milanese environment, entering immediately in the Bottega di Corrente, where his first personal exhibition was successfully held in 1941, with the presentation of Duilio Morosini. Called to arms and sent to the Albanian front, Paganin returned to Milan, after various vicissitudes only in 1945, where, the following year, signed the historic manifesto Beyond Guernica with Morlotti, Testori, Vedova, Cassinari and other critics and artists. Meanwhile, in 1943 he married the painter Dolores Vescovi. In the autumn of 1946, due to a severe asthma contracted in the war, is forced to return to his country of origin. During the forced retreat to Asiago, despite the precarious health conditions, Paganin sculpts wooden statues that will then present, in 1947, at the Borgonuovo Gallery in Milan. It is his second personal exhibition, welcomed with great fervor and enthusiasm by critics, in particular by Marco Valsecchi and Carlo Carrà. The disease does not prevent him from participating in those years the major national exhibitions: in 1947 he was invited to the Turin Quadrennial in 1948 at the Venice Biennale. In 1952, healed from the disease, finally returns to Milan. In that same year he began to teach at the Brera Academy, but only in 1961 he won the chair of Figure and Ornate at the Art School of Venice and then Milan. While teaching, continues his work as a sculptor, participating in exhibitions and collective exhibitions.