MATERIALS: Iron and wood pantograph, watercolour on corrugated cardboard, coins
DIMENSIONS: 370 × 160 × 290 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: O_1990_442
On the mechanical arm of a large pantograph that previously belonged to one of the sculptors of the Mole monument at the Vittoriano in Rome,1 two rods pierce the centre of two black watercolours made by applying dozens of layers of colour onto corrugated cardboard. In the same proportions but different sizes, the two monochromes seem to be the projection of one another, as if made using the same pantograph on which they are mounted. Two coins of different size but the same value are positioned close to the rods’ tips. The work’s title attributes an unaccustomed function to the pantograph, turning it into a device for drilling through watercolours. ‘Likely once huddled in the painting debate (perhaps this too is art: a fierce discussion of a gentle practice), traditionally protected, very close to the manual idea of painting, watercolour is here brought out of its usual slumber and imbued with a demonstrative function […] Like invisible repeaters, in combo with the giant pantograph, these two monochrome watercolours form a tacitly mechanical object, screens in active function, projectors of invisibility.’2 A second version of the work differs from this one by being smaller, and using just one watercolour (inv. 981).
1. It is unclear who the sculptor was from whom Fabio Mauri recouped two pantographs of different sizes. In a 1996 interview, the artist declared: ‘It was an object catalogued by the Belle Arti; the heirs would have thrown it away because they wanted to rent out the studio. The sculptor’s chalks were there too. The sculptor, who had made the chariot with horses for the Monument to Vittorio, and whose name I cannot recall, was a “graduate” sculptor.’ In that same interview, Enrica Torelli Landini speculated that it might have been Giuseppe Tonnini; it may, however, have been Paolo Bartolini.
2. F. Mauri, 'Un gigantesco pantografo e due monete da 100 lire', in Trovaroma, Rome, 6 December 1990, p. 100.
1990-1991, Rome, Studio Bocchi, Due Acquerelli, 6 December 1990 – 15 February 1991.
1993, Malibu, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art and Pepperdine University, Arte Poetica, 17 October – 28 November, curated by Nora Halpern, Sauro Bocchi.
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, L’Aquila, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Church of Santa Caterina, Spanish Fort, Modelli da “Opere e Azioni 1954-1994”. Un omaggio dell’Abruzzo a Fabio Mauri, 29 November – 4 December.
1995, Ferrara, Casa Romei, Warchitecture – Urbicide Sarajevo, 25 March – 16 April, curated by Borislav Curic, Sabahudin Splija.
1995, L’Aquila, Church of San Domenico, Ad usum fabricae, 23 September – 23 October, curated by Gianni Fileccia, Tullio Catalano.
1995, Bomarzo (Viterbo), Museo Laboratorio delle Arti Contemporanee dell’Università degli Studi della Tuscia – Palazzo Orsini, Incantesimi, 9–10 September, curated by Simonetta Lux, Miriam Mirolla.
1997, Klagenfurt, Kunsthalle, Fabio Mauri. Male e bellezza / Das Böse und das Schöne, 24 April – 30 June, curated by Arnulf Rohsmann.
1997, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo Forti, Dadaismo e dadaismi: 300 capolavori in mostra da Duchamp a Warhol, 18 July – 9 November, curated by Giorgio Cortenova.
1997, Anzio (Rome), Museo Civico, Posa in opera, opening 30 November, curated by Cecilia Casorati.
1998, Castelluccio di Pienza (Siena), Galleria La Tartaruga, Picnic o Il buon soldato, 5 September – 11 October, curated by Benedetta Origo, Plinio De Martiis.
1999, Barcelona, Fundació “La Caixa”, La meva cosina Marcella i la guerra civil, 29 January – 21 March, curated by Martí Peran.
2000, Oplonti (Napoli), Sport Club Oplonti, Insorgenze del classico: In cammino da Oplonti, 30 March – 8 April.
2001, Ercolano (Napoli), Villa Campolieto, Insorgenze del classico, 15 June – 22 July, curated by Massimo Bignardi, Vitaliano Corbi, Gabriele Perretta.
2003-2004, Brussels, Académie royale de Belgique, Il nuovo rit-ratto d’Europa: Identità dell’arte italiana negli ultimi 40 anni, 1 October 2003 – 15 February 2004, curated by Vittoria Coen.
2005, Città della Pieve (Perugia), Palazzo della Corgna, Riflessi, 21 July – 31 August.
2007, Rijeka, Museum of Modern Art, 2nd Biennial of Quadrilateral, 15 October – 15 December.
2007, Roseto degli Abruzzi (Teramo), Medieval village, Montepagano, Trasalimenti: Castellarte 07, 15 July – 5 September, curated by Gabriele di Pietro.
2009, Monfalcone (Gorizia), GC.AC. – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri, 10 October – 1 November, curated by Andrea Bruciati.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2013, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Fabio Mauri. Picnic o il buon soldato, 23 September – 14 December.
2019, Herning, Heart Museum, Fabio Mauri: The End, 23 March – 25 August, curated by Michael Bank Christoffersen.
Fabio Mauri, “Un gigantesco pantografo e due monete da 100 lire”, in Trovaroma, 6 December 1990, p. 100.
Massimo Carboni, “Tra prima e seconda vista”, in Artforum International, Year XXIX, no. 8, April 1991, p. 136 (ill.).
Massimo Carboni, “Tra prima e seconda vista”, in Trovaroma, Rome, 21 February 1991, p. 51 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Due acquerelli, exhibition catalogue, Studio Bocchi, Rome (Rome, 1991), n.p. (ill.).
Achille Bonito Oliva, La dimora dei corpi gravi. Tributo a Masaccio, exhibition catalogue, La Salerniana, Erice (Milan: Charta, 1994), p. 74 (ill.).
Marcella Cossu, “Macchina per forare acquerelli. 1990”, 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. 254–255 (ill.).
Edizione straordinaria: Giuseppe Chiari, Enzo Cucchi, Fabio Mauri, Aldo Mondino, Gian Marco Montesano, Mimmo Paladino, Vettor Pisani, exhibition catalogue, Casa Romei, Ferrara, edited by Giacinto di Pietrantonio (Ferrara, 1995), p. 7 (ill.).
Incantesimi. Scene d’arte e poesia a Bomarzo, exhibition catalogue, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Bomarzo, edited by Simonetta Lux, Miriam Mirolla (Viterbo, 1995), pp. 55, 78–80 (ill.).
Incantesimi. Scene d’arte e poesia, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Orsini, Bomarzo, edited by Enrica Torelli Landini, Simonetta Lux, Miriam Mirolla (Viterbo: Università degli Studi della Tuscia, 1996), pp. 12–13.
Fabio Mauri, “Macchina per forare acquerelli”, in Posa in opera, exhibition catalogue, Museo Civico, Anzio, edited by Cecilia Casorati (Anzio, Rome: Comune di Anzio, 1997), pp. 20–23 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), p. 119 (ill.).
Dadaismo dadaismi: Da Duchamp a Warhol, exhibition catalogue, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palazzo Forti, Verona, edited by Giorgio Cortenova (Milan: Electa, 1997), p. 209 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Picnic o il buon soldato, exhibition catalogue, Galleria La Tartaruga, Castelluccio di Pienza (Siena), edited by Plinio De Martiis (San Quirico d’Orcia, Siena: Editrice DonChisciotte, 1998), p. 51 (ill.).
Arte Moderna: l’arte contemporanea dal secondo dopoguerra ad oggi (Milan: Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori, 1998), p. 248 (ill.).
Trasalimenti, progetto per l’arte contemporanea: Artisti per Tullio Catalano, exhibition catalogue, Mediaeval village, Castelbasso (Teramo), edited by Gabriele di Pietro (Grottammare, Ascoli Piceno: Stamperia dell’arancio, 2000), p. 23 (ill.).
Insorgenze del classico: In cammino da Oplonti, exhibition catalogue, Sport Club Oplonti, Oplonti (Pompeii), edited by Massimo Bignardi, Vitaliano Corbi, Gabriele Perretta (Naples: Electa, 2001), pp. 93, 56 (ill.).
Il nuovo rit-ratto d’Europa: Identità dell’arte italiana negli ultimi 40 anni, exhibition catalogue, Académie royale de Belgique, Brussels, edited by Vittoria Coen (Bologna: Editrice Compositori, 2003), pp. 60, 108, 20 (ill.).
Gigliola Lai, “Fabio Mauri - Schermi”, in Trasalimenti: progetto per l’arte contemporanea, exhibition catalogue, Medieval village, Montepagano, Roseto degli Abruzzi (Teramo), edited by Gabriele Di Pietro (Roseto degli Abruzzi: Castellarte, 2007), p. 21 (ill.).
Culture Hero / Heroj Kulture, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, Rijeka, edited by Branko Franceschi (Rijeka: MMSU, 2007), pp. 20–21, 29 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 299–302 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. The End, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2012), pp. 98–100 (ill.).
Heart Museum, Spring–Summer 2019, p. 56 (ill.).
