MATERIALS: Gesso and paper on wood, book and iron frame
DIMENSIONS: 71 × 101 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Titled, dated and signed on the verso, upper left: ‘“Boccioni quadro” / 1993 / Fabio Mauri’
PROVENANCE: The artist; Antonio Caruana; Galleria La Nuvola, Rome
COLLECTION: Private collection, Rome
CATALOGUE: PT_1993_553
Monochrome gesso-based painting on paper, mounted on panel, with embossed white letters freely arranged to form the inscription ‘SENZA ARTE’ (WITHOUT ART). Within an iron frame open to the sides like the ones designed for the ‘Interno/Esterno’ exhibition-installation (inv. 3760), this piece features an open book, Pittura Scultura Futuriste, by artist Umberto Boccioni, at the top left, with the dedication from the painter to a friend, writer and journalist Eugenio Giovannetti, to whom he declares ‘affection and nationalist solidarity!’ This treasured first edition published by Edizioni Futuriste di Poesia in 1914 was part of the major collection of Futurist books that Mauri assembled and studied over the years. The artist exhibited it in his Libreria work (inv. 699), which was made for the above-mentioned exhibition.
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.
Arte poetica, exhibition catalogue, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art and Pepperdine University, Malibu, edited by Nora Halpern, Sauro Bocchi (Malibu: Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, 1993), no. 5 (ill.).
