Accademia Italiana exhibition catalogue 1993

This catalogue includes an interview of Antonio Pacitti by Andrew Lambirth and an article by Robin Dutt describing the experience of having his portrait painted by Antonio Pacitti.

Guantanamo 2004

This widely praised collection of drawings and poems was a collaboration between Antonio and Diane Pacitti. Comments include:

'deeply impressive and very important.' Harold Pinter

'The stabbing, rhythmically repeated huddled form of prisoners being led to a waiting aircraft or kneeling on the float of the prison, or being marched off for exercise, emphasise the loss of human individuality in a way that is almost beyond words, though not, it should be said, of Diane Pacitti's remarkable accompanying poems. In all these works, too, one is left with a quite inescapable sensation of an ancient story, whether Biblical or mythological.' Nicholas Usherwood.

Source of Life 2009

This exhibition, which juxtaposed Biblically based images with works inspired by contemporary political events, unfolded through the Church year, from Harvest and Advent to Holy Week and Easter. Pacitti produced artwork specifically for Source of Life,  including a tall clay sculpture, which can still be seen at All Saints, and the remarkable monotype Simeon, produced the morning before a heart attack sent him to hospital with what proved his final illness.

The Source of Life booklet and DVD were produced in 2009. Copies are still available from Diane Pacitti for £6.00 including U.K. postage and packing.
Email dianepacitti@btinternet.com

Future publication: a novel by Diane Pacitti

This novel, which draws partly on the experiences and dramatic family history of Antonio Pacitti while departing into a fictional plot, is being prepared for publication by Cultural Documents, a programme established by Deirdre MacKenna in 2009 to create cultural legacy from historical societies, and Cosmo Iannone Editore based in Isernia, Italy. A condensed version of the novel will also appear in a pocket-book to be published by Cultural Documents.

Comments on and by the artist

His mission is a never-ending search…. Every mark is accepted as valid, an attitude completely unpretentious in pursuit of the truth, which he now arrives at, with increasing beauty, time and time again. 
Craigie Aitchison R.A.

Both the drawings and your wife’s poems are deeply impressive and very important. Harold Pinter on Guantanamo.

It takes courage to diversify, to spread into other disciplines… Pacitti’s daring… is entirely a daring which allows for the greatest use of the creative mind.  
Robin Dutt, art critic

Tony’s drawings radiate a healing warmth that spreads into even the darkest corners from the passion of Christ to Guantanamo Bay.
These are subjects that few artists could confront yet he transforms despair into hope, raising human suffering to the dignity of the timeless, spiritual plane.
Martin Royalton-Kisch   Museum Curator

When I paint I am drawing all the time. The rhythms of the form, the abstraction of the thing, the structure are the same. 
Antonio Pacitti

When I’m making a pot on the wheel, I tend to close my eyes after I’ve centred the clay and feel for the form. I hold my breath and sustain it for as long as I can. It’s like swimming under water. 
Antonio Pacitti