Casa-studio Vivarelli

Studio-house of sculptor Jorio Vivarelli on the hills of Pistoia, designed by Oskar Stonorov, with sculptures, drawings and a park of bronzes.

Opening hours unknownFree admission

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About the museum

At the end of the 1960s the sculptor Jorio Vivarelli bought land on the hills of Pistoia, where he taught at the Scuola d’arte. With his friend and collaborator, the American architect Oskar Stonorov, he designed a studio-house also conceived as a “bottega artigiana del Quattrocento” (a 15th-century craft workshop) and as a meeting place for young artists. Work began in the summer of 1969; Stonorov died in 1970, before completion, and the building was finished about a year later. In 1971 the villa hosted courses for foreign students of the Università internazionale dell’arte, organised by Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti.

The building, with a T-shaped layout and three wings on staggered levels that follow the slope, recalls Tuscan elements such as red terracotta, ochre walls and large arched windows; the studio is double height, and the artist’s bronze sculptures stand in the garden. Four rooms contain drawings, engravings, medals, coins and sculptures documenting Vivarelli’s career, from his first works in terracotta and wax, through the American years with Stonorov, to the last figures of the “Uomo nuovo”. The photo archive and library, with over 2,000 volumes, can be consulted by appointment.

In 2000 Vivarelli donated his works and the villa to the city of Pistoia, and the Fondazione Pistoiese Jorio Vivarelli was established; it preserves and promotes his heritage and also runs an artist residency programme.

Highlights

Rationalist studio-house designed by Oskar Stonorov
Sculptures, drawings, engravings and medals by Jorio Vivarelli
Large bronzes in the park
Library with over 2,000 volumes and audiovisual archive
Artist residency programme

Founded: 2002
Operated by: Fondazione Pistoiese Jorio Vivarelli
Visitors per year: approx. 2,333