MATERIALS: Oil on canvas, bronze sculpture
DIMENSIONS: Variable
Monochromes: 210 × 150 cm each
Lettering (3 pieces): 86 × 170 cm; 86 × 464 cm; 86 × 170 cm
Sculpture: 71 × 27 × 25 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: I_1985_921
Two large monochrome canvases, one red, one yellow, mounted in the centre of the wall. Above, the writing-painting ‘Entartete Kunst’ (degenerate art), oils on canvas divided into three parts, placed on adjacent walls, suggest an environment. Resting on the floor, a bronze sculpture reproducing Joseph Goebbels pictured as he was in the famous photograph of him at the opening of the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition in Berlin in 1938, is centrally placed in front of the monochromes. As Laura Cherubini noted: ‘The figure is cut off at the same point where the frame of the photo ends precisely because it does not represent the individual Goebbels but his role, his public image.’1 When first exhibited in Mara Coccia’s gallery on Via del Corso in Rome in 1985, opposite the monochromes, the installation was paired with the work Schermo-Disegno (inv. 186) and, on a side wall, an oil on canvas with the letter A di Entartete Kunst (inv. 371). Closing the exhibition, in the next room was Arte e Mondanità (inv. 364), a work consisting of a wooden crucifix of Christ in a tuxedo with features similar to Picasso’s Demoiselle d’Avignon. In his contemporary review, Filiberto Menna wrote: ‘Mauri mounted the ensemble on the gallery’s rear wall, focusing on centralisation and frontality as well as strict symmetrical order: the result is an overall image with great force of impact, almost as if it were a singular altarpiece, an icon of violence and barbarism. The impression of aching sacredness, of wounded religiosity, is confirmed and reinforced by a wooden sculpture representing a Christ on the Cross dressed in elegant evening dress, made in 1932 by the tailor Caraceni.’2
1. L. Cherubini, 'Entartete Kunst', in Fabio Mauri. Opere e azioni 1954–1994, catalogue of the exhibition (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome), edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori e Carte Segrete, Rome, 1994, p. 216.
2. F. Menna, 'Artista attento Goebbels ti guarda', in Paese Sera, 16 June 1985, p. 18.
1985, Rome, Galleria Mara Coccia, Entartete Kunst 1957-1985, 30 May – 29 June.
1986, Rome, Palazzo dei Congressi, XI Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte, 16 June – 16 August.
2002, Molfetta (Bari), Sala dei Templari, L’incognita dell’altro, 25 May – 20 June, curated by Giacomo Zaza.
2005-2006, Bergamo, GAMeC, War is over: 1945-2005 La libertà dell’arte: Da Picasso a Warhol a Cattelan, 14 October 2005 – 26 February 2006, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Maria Cristina Rodeschini Galati.
2016, Turin, Fair – Galleria Michela Rizzo, Artissima, 4–6 November.
2018, New York, Hauser & Wirth, With Out, 25 January – 7 April, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.
Filiberto Menna, “Artista attento Goebbels ti guarda”, in Paese sera, Rome, 16 June 1985, p. 18.
Sergio Guarino, “L'arte degenerata in un sofferto rifacimento di Fabio Mauri”, in Avanti!, Rome, 27 June 1985, (ill.).
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, “Calendario ragionato delle mostre. Fabio Mauri: "Entartete Kunst"”, in Reporter: Fine Secolo, Rome, 15-16 June 1985, p. 28 (ill.).
“Fabio Mauri. Entartete Kunst“, in L’Espresso, Milan, 23 June 1985, .
Laura Cherubini, “Fabio Mauri ”, in Flash Art, no. 128, Giancarlo Politi Editore, Milan, Summer 1985, p. 39 (ill.).
L’Immagine, edited by Giovanni Damiani (Milan: Pragma Libri / Carlini editore, 1989), p. 39 (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. 216 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), p. 45 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. La meva cosina Marcella i la guerra civil, exhibition catalogue, Fundació “La Caixa”, Barcelona, edited by Martí Peran (Barcelona, 1999), p. 13 (ill.).
War is over: 1945-2005. La libertà nell’arte, exhibition catalogue, GAMeC, Bergamo, edited by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Maria Cristina Rodeschini Galati (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2005), pp. 83, 269 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), p. 222 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 261–266 (ill.).
Giuseppe Varchetta, Istanti (Venice: Marsilio, 2010), pp. 24–25 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), pp. 107–110, no. 26 (ill.).
Elisabetta Catalano, Work with Fabio Mauri, edited by Laura Cherubini (Milan: Maretti Editore, 2013), p. 144 (ill.).
La peinture ou comment s’en débarrasser, exhibition catalogue, Villa Medici, Rome, edited by Éric de Chassey (Rome: Drago, 2014), pp. 44, 55 (ill.).
Le opere e gli archivi: Mara Coccia, Daniela Ferraria, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, edited by Ilaria Bernardi, Francesca Gallo (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2020), p. 11.
