Hugo Pratt: From Genoa to the South Seas

14/10/2021 - 10:00 | 20/03/2022 - 18:00

It was July 1st, 1967, when a new comics magazine, “Sgt. Kirk”, hit newsstands. It cost 500 lire and collected some of the finest strips created by Hugo Pratt during his Argentine period. The magazine’s publisher was Florenzo Ivaldi, a man from Genoa with great admiration for Pratt, and alongside the story published in “Sgt. Kirk”, in 1967 Ivaldi also chose to release another unpublished adventure, “A Ballad of the Salty Sea.” It is here, in Genoa, that Corto Maltese was born, and from here he sets off again on his journey towards the South Seas.

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An exhibition featuring over 200 original pieces, including plates and watercolors—some dating back to the rare Argentine period—accompanied by an original multi-vision installation, a sort of lantern to help visitors stay on course and immerse themselves in the stories of the most beloved adventurer of all time. The exhibition brings together the entire Prattesque world, made up of rebels and revolutionaries, seductive women, Native Americans, Venice, and the unforgettable forests and prairies of Wheeling and Ticonderoga. It also includes all the literary influences that shaped his work, such as Kenneth Roberts, Fenimore Cooper, and James Oliver Curwood, as well as the Native American cultures of the northeastern United States in the 18th century, which form the foundation of his adventurous imagination.

InfoThere is Africa, as depicted in The Scorpions of the Desert, In a Distant Sky, and Baldwin 622, as well as the famous Ethiopian episodes featuring Corto Maltese. There is Venice, present even in stories set far from the lagoon, and Argentina, where Pratt firmly established himself as both an author and illustrator. Thanks to Argentine collectors, the exhibition catalogue also includes a story previously unpublished in Europe, The Justice of Wahte, originally published in Super Misterix in 1955.

And of course, Corto Maltese is not to be missed—a unique character and a multifaceted hero, an icon of travel, freedom, and respect for the cultures he encounters.
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The exhibition is promoted and organized by Fondazione Palazzo Ducale per la Cultura and CMS.Cultura, in collaboration with CONG – Hugo Pratt Art Properties, and curated by Patrizia Zanotti, director of CONG and head of Pratt’s editorial work—the only woman in the world whom the sailor Corto Maltese will never be able to leave.

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