Achilles Rizzoli

Who was Achilles Rizzoli?

Achilles Gildo Rizzoli, anonymous during his lifetime, has since his death become celebrated as an outsider artist. He is an unusual example of an "outsider" artist who had considerable formal training in drawing.

Born in Marin County, California, Rizzoli lived in San Francisco, where he was employed as an architectural draftsman. After his death, a group of elaborate drawings came to light, many in the form of maps and architectural renderings that described an imaginary world exposition. The drawings include "portraits" of his mother and neighborhood children "symbolically sketched" in the form of fanciful neo-baroque buildings.

Rizzoli published one novel, The Colonnade, under the pseudonym Peter Metermaid.

A film was made about his life and work, called Yield to Total Elation: The Life and Art of Achilles Rizzoli.