MATERIALS: Gesso and paper on wood, compass, iron frame, glass
DIMENSIONS: 71 × 101 × 6 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed, dated and titled on the verso, upper right: ‘Fabio Mauri 1990 / Compasso ’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Private collection, Rome
CATALOGUE: PT_1990_557
Gesso-based monochrome picture on paper, mounted on board, with raised white letters forming the word ‘SENZARTE’ (WITHOUT ART), in an open-sided iron frame similar to the Interno/Esterno collection of artworks (inv. 3760). In the top right, behind glass, an antique iron compass with an adjustable arc dominates the composition, lending the work its title, as is often the case in this type of work: ‘As dry as indications, as in inventories, the names double the materiality of the corresponding tools’.1
1. A. Boatto in Fabio Mauri. Interno / Esterno, catalogue of the exhibition (Rome, Galleria Anna D'Ascanio and Florence, Galleria Carini), edited by Lara-Vinca Masini, Alberto Boatto, Rome / Florence, 1990, p. 9.
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.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
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), p. 245 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), p. 86 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), pp. 78–83 (ill.).
Giacomo Marramao, L’esperimento del mondo: Mistica e filosofia nell’arte di Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2018), no. 3, (ill.).
