INV. No 896
Gli ovali e la storia
1964
ON PAPER
ENGLISH TITLE: The ovals and History
MATERIALS: Decal and mixed media on paper
DIMENSIONS: 70 × 100 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed and dated on the recto, lower right: ‘mauri 64
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Achille Mauri, Milan
CATALOGUE: S_1964_896
NOTE:

Screen-drawing characterised by a black band painted around the edges of a sheet of paper, framing a rectangle with rounded corners, featuring a composition of images transferred to paper using the decalcomania technique. Taken from newspapers and magazines, the photographs present showgirls, movie scenes and pages of text rendered illegible, evanescent and blurred, like projections superimposed onto one another. Thirty-two ovals, traced out in ink and arranged in a grid of four rows by eight columns, frame a series of details like beams of cinematic light. For greater insight into the concept of ‘schermo’ in Mauri’s work, see the introductory essays.


Exhibitions:

1965, Civitanova Marche, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Triennale dell’Adriatico, August–September.

2019, Geneva, Musée des Suisses dans le monde – Château de Penthes,
Art et presse: libre échange, 1 May – 30 October, curated by Guillaume de Sardes.


Bibliography:

Valérie Da Costa, Fabio Mauri: le passé en actes (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2018), no. 6, p. 20 (ill.).


Gli ovali e la storia, 1964
Photo: Davide Begotti, 2019