DIMENSIONS: 120 × 113 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed and dated on the recto: ‘Fabio Mauri 1967’
PROVENANCE: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
COLLECTION: Private collection
CATALOGUE: S_1967_773
Emulsion on canvas of a photograph of American film director D.W. Griffith (1875–1948), shown seated, directing on set. Considered one of the fathers of American cinema, Griffith is a controversial figure especially for his film The Birth of a Nation (1915), a milestone in movie history, a box-office blockbuster that was also one of the most racist films ever produced in the United States, so much so that its theatrical release provoked bitter controversy, unrest and rioting. The director’s photo is framed by a black border, a hallmark feature of Mauri’s Schermi (Screens), and traversed by a white inscription, ‘DIRECTOR’. The work exists in two different versions of different sizes (inv. 206,773). For greater insight into the concept of ‘schermo’ in Mauri’s work, see the introductory essays.
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.
2008, Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, 17 April – 15 May, curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
Almanacco Letterario Bompiani 1968, Bompiani, Milan, 1967, p. 96 (ill.).
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. 17 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, exhibition catalogue, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2008), p. 60 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), p. 1 (ill.).
