New York, Magazzino Italian Art presents the works of Mario Schifano with a completely new vision

Magazzino Italian Art in New York presents a new exhibition of the works of Mario Schifano (Homs, 1934 - Rome, 1998), artist, filmmaker and musician. Curated by Filippo Fossati, director of Magazzino, in collaboration with the Mario Schifano Archive and the Maurizio Calvesi Foundation, the exhibition entitled Germinal will be on view from March 23 to August 9, 2024 in the Robert Olnick Pavilion.

The exhibition opens with a series of monochrome paintings with which Schifano presented himself in 1960: single-color, enamel-painted backgrounds. The titles, designed to stimulate the visitor’s imagination, highlight the versatility of Schifano’s thinking, which ranges from jazz to movement and contemporary Rome to art history. In addition to the monochrome paintings, the exhibition displays works from the early 1960s in which the monochromatic surfaces, as Fossati notes, “began to be populated with signals, numbers, letters, signs, shapes, marks and notes.” These include the paintings that incorporated the famous Coca-Cola logo, considered by Schifano to be “propaganda” for the penetration of U.S. industrial consumerism into Italy. Germinal continues with works made between 1965 and 1970, a period when Schifano reached the status of superstar of Italian pop art. Prominent among these works are paintings from the Futurismo rivisitato series, in which Schifano looks to the Italian avant-garde movement of the early 20th century for inspiration, arguing that the Futurists were “pioneers in capturing silence, noise or the essence of a state of mind.” Taking up this challenge, as Fossati recalls, Schifano wonders if it is possible to “represent life as a kaleidoscope” and at the same time “indicate the intrinsic structures of this apparent chaos.”

The Germinal exhibition celebrates the memory of the art critic and historian Maurizio Calvesi (Rome, 1927-2020) and his wife, the writer, editor and museum director Augusta Monferini (Ancona, 1934 - Rome, 2022), forerunners of an exhibition on Schifano in the US. Magazzino took up this project with the exhibition Mario Schifano: The Rise of the ’60s curated by Alberto Salvadori and held from September 14, 2023 to January 8, 2024. Presenting many of the same eighty works, Germinal aims to offer a completely new and different view of Schifano’s work, seen from Filippo Fossati’s perspective.

“This exhibition presents ’germinal’ works made over a decade, from 1960 to 1970, a period of great social, economic, political and artistic ferment, in which Schifano actively participated,” said the curator. “In those years, with his strong charisma and effervescence, Schifano distinguished himself as one of the most famous artists in Italy and as a figure equally appreciated abroad. His is an art conceived for everyone and not only for a small elite.”

Photo by Marco Anelli - Tommaso Sacconi

New York, Magazzino Italian Art presents the works of Mario Schifano with a completely new vision

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.