DIMENSIONS: 32 × 23 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed, titled and dated on the verso of the frame, upper right: ‘Roma / Fabio Mauri / The End / 1959’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Sebastiano Mauri
CATALOGUE: D_1959_82
The words ‘THE END’ are typed in blue repeatedly on a sheet of Fabriano ‘Raffaello’ paper. Random letters sporadically crop up, eventually forming unintelligible text strings towards the bottom. Black ink brushstrokes partially obscure the typed content. Towards the bottom, these strokes are covered by an overlay of tracing paper with the Letraset words ‘THE END’, accompanied by two red oil spots.
This piece is reminiscent of a number of drawings and collages from the same period, characterised by a negative language of signs that either prohibits, erases or is deliberately illegible and fragmented, often borrowed from the world of comic books, decontextualised from any narrative structure (for example, inv. 79, 86, 775).
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.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2015, Venice, Giardini di Castello, Central Pavilion, 56. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – All the World’s Futures, 9 May – 22 November, curated by Okwui Enwezor.
2019, London, Fair – Hauser & Wirth, Frieze Masters, 3–6 October.
2021, Rome, Complesso di Campo di Bove, Un atlante di arte nuova. Emilio Villa e l’Appia Antica, 25 June – 19 September, curated by Nunzio Giustozzi.
2023-2024, Rivoli (Turin), Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Experiments in the Existence of Evil, 16 December 2023 – 24 March 2024, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Sara Codutti, Marianna Vecellio.
Emilio Villa, “Fabio Mauri”, in Appia, no. 2, Rome, January 1960, n.p. (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, exhibition catalogue, Studio d’Arte Toninelli, Rome, edited by Cesare Vivaldi (Rome: Studio d’Arte Toninelli, 1969), p. 17 (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. 62 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), p. 53 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), p. 40 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, “Drawings”, in Fabio Mauri. Ideology and Memory, edited by Studio Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2012), p. 19 (ill.).
Silvano Manganaro, “La storia tra furia e memoria”, in Il Giornale dell'Arte – Vernissage, Year XXX, no. 321, Turin, June 2012, p. 9 (ill.).
56. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte: All the World’s Futures: Mostra, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Okwui Enzewor (Venice: Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia / Marsilio, 2015), pp. 134 (ill.), 615.
Mauri / Muntadas, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, edited by Laura Cherubini (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2019), p. 21 (ill.).
Un atlante di arte nuova. Emilio Villa e l’Appia Antica, exhibition catalogue, Complesso di Campo di Bove, Rome, edited by Nunzio Giustozzi (Milan: Electa, 2021), pp. 138–139 (ill.).
Lorenzo Madaro, “Lungo viaggio nell'archivio di Fabio Mauri”, in Arte, no. 581, Milan, January 2022, p. 123 (ill.).
Mauri, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni (Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2022), pp. 32–33 (ill.).
“All the World's a Screen”, in Ursula, no. 10, New York, Spring–Summer 2024, p. 152 (ill.).
