Mario Schifano
(Homs-Libya 1934 â Rome 1998)
Mario Schifano (born in Homs, Libya in 1934; died in Rome, Italy in 1998), made his first important appearance with the exhibition "Five Roman painters: Angeli , Festa, Lo Savio, Schifano and Uncini" presented by Pierre Restany in 1960 at the Galleria La Salita in Rome. He attracted criticsâ interest with his monochrome paintings which gave the impression of a screen which subsequently displayed numbers, letters, road signs, and the Esso and Coca Cola trademarks. He signed an exclusive contract with Ileana Sonnabend. In 1962 he made his first trip to the United States, and was intrigued by artists like Dine and Kline. He spent a great deal of time with Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Rothko, Andy Warhol and Gregory Corso. He exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in the exhibition The New Realists.
After solo exhibitions in Rome, Paris and Milan, he returned to the United States. He was at the forefront of criticism and won several awards including the Premio Lissone (Lissone 1961) , the Fiorino award and La Nuova Figurazione (Florence , 1963). In 1963, he ended his collaboration with Ileana Sonnabend who was left baffled by the change in his artistic production which was so far removed from earlier work. In his new works there started to appear images from the history of Italian art. The first of his "Anaemic Landscapes" also appeared, which he presented at the Venice Biennale Exhibition in 1964 upon invitation, followed by works dedicated to Futurism. His first short films in black and white â most of which are silent - come from this period.
He started his exclusive collaboration with Giorgio Marconi which continued until the end of the 1970s. He participated in international collective exhibitions (i.e. group exhibitions) including events at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1964, and in 1965 at the San Marino and Sao Paulo of Brazil Biennial exhibitions, as well as the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Ossigeno ossigeno, Tuttestelle, Oasi, Compagni, compagni.Nel 1967 presenta allo Studio Marconi di Milano il lungometraggio 16 mm. Anna Carini vista in agosto dalle farfalle.
In 1966-1967 he conceived the series "Ossigeno Ossigeno", "Tuttestelle", "Oasis", and "Compagni, compagni". Le stelle di Mario Schifano. One of their debut concerts, on 28 December 1967 at the Piper Club in Rome, became the first Italian multimedia liveshow.
He makes three experimental films in 35mm .: Satellite, Umano non umano, Trapianto, e consunzione e morte di Franco Brocani.
In 1967-1969 he presented the feature film "Anna Carini vista in agosto dalle farfalle" at the Studio Marconi in Milan, which was followed by the trilogy of films "Satellite", "Umano non umano", and "Trapianto - Consunzione e morte di Franco Brocani".
He took part in a collective exhibition at the Galleria La Salita in Rome where he did not exhibit paintings but projected photograms on the Vietnam War.
An ideological and existential crisis forces him to periods of isolation in his studio where he creates works reinterpreting Magritte, De Chirico, Boccioni, CĂ©zanne, Picabia. He remakes his works of the sixties in the "Sintetico dall'Inventario" cycle.