MATERIALS: Mixed media on canvas on protruding frame
DIMENSIONS: 125 × 114 × 4 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed, titled and dated on the verso, upper right: ‘fabio mauri / cinema e figura / 1960’
PROVENANCE: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
COLLECTION: Private Collection, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
ON LOAN: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli
CATALOGUE: S_1960_150
Mixed-media painting on canvas, covered by a semi-transparent gauze behind which the body of an enigmatic figure can be glimpsed, its top wholly concealed by a Schermo (Screen) that juts outward. The work belongs to a series of pictures that Mauri made between 1960 and 1962, characterised by a bipartite structure consisting of a jutting schermo in the upper part, and a monochrome (or veiled) background, or the lower part traversed by graphic motifs. For greater insight into the concept of ‘schermo’ in Mauri’s work, see the introductory essays.
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.
2000, Trissino (Vicenza), Former Town Hall, Pop Art: Perché Roma, 9 September – 1 October.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2007, Milan, Galleria Milano, Fabio Mauri: Schermi, 3 May – 15 July.
2008, Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Time & Place: Milano-Turin 1958-1968, 1 May – 7 September, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero.
2009, Zurich, Kunsthaus, Hot spots 1956-1969, 12 February – 3 May, curated by Tobia Bezzola.
2013, Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Arte totale: il Gruppo ’63, 18 October – 3 November, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
2015, New York, Hauser & Wirth, East 69th Street, Fabio Mauri. I was not new, 5 March – 2 May, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.
2016, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Imagine, 23 April – 19 September, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero.
2022-2023, Paris, Jeu de Paume and LE BAL, Reversing the Eye. Arte Povera and beyond 1960-75: photography, film, video, 11 October 2022 – 23 February 2023.
2023, Milan, Palazzo della Triennale, Reversing the Eye. Fotografia, film e video negli anni dell’arte povera, 17 May – 3 September, curated by Quentin Bajac, Diane Dufour, Giuliano Sergio, Lorenza Bravetta (travelling: 2022, Paris).
2023-2024, Rivoli (Turin), Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Experiments in the Existence of Evil, 16 December 2023 – 24 March 2024, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Sara Codutti, Marianna Vecellio.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, “I prototipi: schermi. 1957-1994”, in Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu (Milan / Rome: Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori / Carte Segrete, 1994), pp. 78–84 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), p. 52 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Schermi, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Milano, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Galleria Milano, 2007), pp. 9–14, no. 1 (ill.).
Time & Place: Milano-Torino 1958-1968, exhibition catalogue, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, edited by Luca Massimo Barbero, Cecilia Widenheim (Stockholm / Göttingen: Moderna Museet / Steidl Verlag, 2008), p. 94 (ill.).
Hot spots: Rio de Janeiro, Milano-Torino, Los Angeles, 1956 bis 1969, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthaus, Zurich, edited by Tobia Bezzola (Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2009), p. 170 (ill.).
Imagine. Nuove immagini nell’arte italiana 1960-1969, exhibition catalogue, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, edited by Luca Massimo Barbero (Venice: Marsilio, 2016), p. 41 (ill.), 34.
Reversing the Eye. Arte Povera and beyond 1960-75: photography, film, video, exhibition catalogue, Jeu de Paume and LE BAL, Paris, edited by Quentin Bajac, Diane Dofour, Giuliano Sergio (Paris: Atelier EXB, 2022), p. 216 (ill.).
