MATERIALS: Photographs, pencil and paint on paper
DIMENSIONS: 68.5 × 49.5 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed and dated on the recto, lower right: ‘mauri 76’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Private collection, Rome
CATALOGUE: C_1976_246
Two photographs, juxtaposed one on top of another, show: a crowd waiting to enter the opening of the ‘Entartete Kunst’ (Degenerate Art) exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, Berlin, on 26 February 1938; German minister Joseph Goebbels accompanied by exhibition commissioner Hartmut Pistauer (to his left, in glasses) on an official visit to that exhibition, among works by artists Gerhard Marcks and Emil Nolde. Above the images, filled with symbols and propaganda graphics, a pencil drawing reconstructs the geometric design of the Nazi eagle, emblem of the NSDAP party, which promoted the exhibition. Along the lower edge, the freehand words ‘sopprimono avanguardie’ (they suppress avant-gardes) echo one of the titles in Manipolazione di cultura (inv. 3502), accompanied by a stylised drawing and splatters of red paint.
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.