Wooden panel with a raised frame, covered in corrugated cardboard. An insert of the same material at the centre of the painting creates a rectangular area where the ‘undulations’ are arranged in a different direction, contrasting with the system’s regularity. The title, Formazione di un pensiero anarchico, references 1970s works of the same name (inv. 223), while the technique refers to a work from that same period, Ritratto dell’anarchico Galli (inv. 427), in which the different orientation of the cardboard that makes up the figure and the background appears to illustrate a tendency toward ‘constant opposition’ characteristic of anarchist thought. ‘Man is inclined toward evil; critical effort coincides with the opposite desire, for good […] To oppose evil is to oppose (its) authority […] Therefore, I call myself an anarchist, therefore, I cultivate myself as an artist. Therefore, I am against, because I would be in favour.’1

1. F. Mauri in Fabio Mauri. Opere e azioni 1954–1994, catalogue of the exhibition (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome), edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori e Carte Segrete, Rome, 1994, p. 141.