INV. No 8
Arcibaldo III
1960
ON PAPER
MATERIALS: Collage and ink on paper
DIMENSIONS: 12.4 × 11.7 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed on the recto, lower right: ‘mauri’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: C_1960_8
NOTE:

A series of three sketches on paper, on which Mauri used gestural brushstrokes to depict a cinema interior, incorporating panels from the American comic ‘Bringing up Father’, here in its Italian version. In the panels, characters Arcibaldo and Petronilla are at the cinema, sketched from behind as black silhouettes, backlit against the screen. These drawings are of special significance to Mauri’s pioneering direct incorporation of comic elements into artwork – a concept very much ahead of its time. The drawings also ushered in the idea of making reference to the viewer, foreshadowing later pieces like Schermo con pubblico (inv. 176).


Exhibitions:

1994, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, 21 June – 5 October, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu.

2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains,
Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.

2023, Zurich, Hauser & Wirth,
Fabio Mauri. Amore mio, 30 September – 23 December, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.


Arcibaldo III, 1960