MATERIALS: Photographs and acrylic on canvas, captions printed on paper
COMPONENTS: 16 paintings
DIMENSIONS: Variable
160 × 100 cm each
INSCRIPTIONS: Titled and signed on the verso of each painting except for Si legano al classico / Sie machen in Klassik
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: I_1994_3553
An installation consisting of sixteen canvases hung in a line on adjoining walls to define an environment, or on a single wall arranged in two rows of eight elements each, or in four rows of four. Each canvas consists of a photographic print that occupies the top part of the image and a black, acrylic-painted background to complete the work’s format. The subjects in the photographs are images taken from Nazi/Fascist propaganda books and magazines, looming over a monochrome which, varying in each canvas, sets the rhythm, causing ‘a high tide of black, perhaps of evil, rising and falling, an unequal rhythm of differing levels’.1 Each photograph is accompanied by a caption – printed on a plaque placed on the wall below the canvas – composed of a phrase conjugated in the third person plural that would appear to be a tautological description of the corresponding image. The images are from the artist’s book of the same name (inv. 3502) from which Mauri selected the following titles: Conoscono la qualità; Utilizzano sciocchi Definiscono l’arte; Vincono a vela; Amano il bello; Si abbronzano; Coltivano il corpo; Sono simmetrici; Filmano tutto; Catturano estetiche; Si appropriano della tecnica; Volano in USA; Formano un gruppo; Inquadrano borghesi; Si legano al classico; and Hanno una idea (They Know Quality; They Use Fools; They Define Art; They Win by Sailing; They Love Beauty; They Sunbathe; They Cultivate the Body; They Are Symmetrical; They Film Everything; They Capture Aesthetics; They Appropriate the Technique; They Fly to the USA; They Form a Group; They Frame Bourgeois; They Are Linked to the Classic; They Have an Idea). A second version of the installation, made in 2004, consisted of eleven smaller-format subjects (inv. 3669).
1. L. Cherubini, ‘Manipolazione di Cultura’, 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. 146.
1993, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Tutte le strade portano a Roma?, 11 March – 26 April, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
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.
1994, London, Smith’s Galleries, Four Italian Masters of Contemporary Art, 20 October – 6 December.
1997, Klagenfurt, Kunsthalle, Fabio Mauri. Male e bellezza / Das Böse und das Schöne, 24 April – 30 June, curated by Arnulf Rohsmann.
2000, Rome, Istituto Austriaco di Cultura, Fuori di qui, 19 June – 7 July, curated by Cecilia Casorati.
2000, Turin, Archivio di Stato, Tirannicidi, 6 September – 15 October, curated by Luigi Ficacci.
2002-2003, Milan, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Utopie quotidiane: L’uomo e i suoi sogni nell’arte dal 1960 ad oggi, 23 October 2002 – 19 January 2003, curated by Vittorio Fagone, Angela Madesani.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2005, Todi (Perugia), Monastery of the Lucrezie and Palazzo del Vignola, Todi Arte Festival, 23–31 July, curated by Giacomo Zaza.
2007, Rome, Galleria il Ponte, Fabio Mauri: Art Nègre, 19 June – 19 July, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
2008, Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, 17 April – 15 May, curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2008, Turin, Galleria Martano, Fabio Mauri: L’insolubile, 7 November – 23 December.
2010-2011, Trieste, Castello di Miramare, Fabio Mauri: Un sognatore della ragione, 3 December 2010 – 27 February 2011, curated by Roberto Alberton.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2016-2017, Naples, Museo Madre, Retrospettiva a luce solida, 26 November 2016 – 6 March 2017, curated by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani.
2016, Dresden, SKD – Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Die Vermessung des Unmenschen, 13 May – 7 August, curated by Wolfgang Scheppe, Sara Codutti, Eleonora Sovrani.
2019, Herning, Heart Museum, Fabio Mauri: The End, 23 March – 25 August, curated by Michael Bank Christoffersen.
2025-2026, Milan, Triennale Milano, Fabio Mauri. De Oppressione, 3 December 2025 – 15 February 2026, curated by Ilaria Bernardi.
Tutte le strade portano a Roma?, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva (Rome: Edizioni Carte Segrete, 1993), p. 165 (ill: Formano un gruppo / Sie bilden Gruppen).
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. 146–149 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), pp. 13, 95–98 (ill.).
Fuori di qui, exhibition catalogue, Istituto Austriaco di Cultura, Rome, edited by Cecilia Casorati (Rome, 2000), n.p. (ill.).
Utopie quotidiane: L’uomo e i suoi sogni nell’arte dal 1960 a oggi, exhibition catalogue, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, edited by Vittorio Fagone, Angela Madesani (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2002), pp. 127, 135 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), pp. 74–75 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, “Fabio Mauri. Un pensiero fisico”, in Flash Art, Year XL, no. 266, Milan, October–November 2007, p. 81.
Fabio Mauri. L’insolubile, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Martano, Turin, edited by Liliana Dematteis (Turin, 2008), pp. 42–45 (ill.).
Giorgio Sebastiano Brizio, “Fabio Mauri alla galleria Martano, Torino”, in Arte e Critica, no. 57, Rome, December 2008, p. 119 (ill.).
Maria Grazia Tolomeo, “Fabio Mauri. Sessantotto. Tra pensiero e azione”, in Roma Capitale, Year IV, no. 34, Rome, May 2008, p. 37 (ill.).
Manuela De Leonardis, “Fabio Mauri. Roma, Auditorium Parco della Musica”, in Exibart, Rome, 2 May 2008 (https://www.exibart.com/roma/fino-al-15-v-2008-fabio-mauri-roma-auditorium-parco-della-musica/), (ill.).
Raffaella Perna, In forma di fotografia: Ricerche artistiche in Italia dal 1960 al 1970 (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2009), fig. 31, p. 64.
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 129–136 (ill.).
Elena Pirazzoli, A partire da ciò che resta. Forme memoriali dal 1945 alle macerie del Muro di Berlino (Reggio Emilia: Diabasis, 2010), pp. 167, 191, nn. 1–4 (ill.).
Barbara Casavecchia, “Body Politics”, in Frieze, no. 147, London, May 2012, p. 185 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), pp. 84–86, no. 23 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. The End, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2012), pp. 103–104 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Archivio di memoria, edited by Dionigi Mattia Gagliardi (Rome: Numero cromatico editore, 2015), pp. 124–125 (ill.).
Wolfgang Scheppe, “Manipulation der Kultur. Das Werk des politischen Künstlers Fabio Mauri”, in Die Vermessung des Unmenschen. Zur Ästhetik des Rassismus, exhibition catalogue, SKD – Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden, edited by Wolfgang Scheppe (Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2016), pp. 12–13 (ill.).
Heart Museum, Spring–Summer 2019, pp. 50 - 51, 54 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, Contro corrente: I grandi solitari dell’arte italiana: Alighiero Boetti, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Fabio Mauri, Vettor Pisani, Marisa Merz (Milan: Christian Marinotti edizioni, 2020), pp. 114–115, 124.
Mauri, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni (Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2022), pp. 46–51 (ill.).
Vincenzo Trione, “L'oppressione libera tutti”, in la Lettura, Milan, 30 November 2025, pp. 42–43 (ill.).
Simone Mosca, L’orrore della guerra nell'arte di Fabio Mauri proiettata nel futuro, in la Repubblica – Milano, Rome, 3 December 2025, p. 10 (ill.).
Marcella Vanzo, “Nel buio del mondo”, in Artedossier, no. 437, Florence, December 2025, p. 30 (ill.).
