53 - MARIO SCHIFANO (Homs, Libya, 1934 - Rome, 1998).

MARIO SCHIFANO (Homs, Libya, 1934 - Rome, 1998). Untitled. Enamel and acrylic on canvas/PVC. Signed on the back. Certificate attached. Measurements: 50 × 70 cm.; 74 × 93 cm. with frame. Work of synthetic language and great visual intensity, in which Mario Schifano builds the image from the contrast between a dark background and a large central luminous form, almost incandescent. The white figure, outlined by bluish and greenish halos, acquires an ambiguous presence between stain, silhouette and apparition, while the blue strokes of the lower zone introduce a gestural rhythm of strong expressiveness. The pictorial matter imposes itself with an immediate energy: the white acts as a visual focus, almost like a projected image or a trace of light on the darkness. The tension between appearance and erasure, between surface and radiance, is fully in tune with the artist's universe, where painting becomes a field of visual and perceptive experimentation. Schifano is considered one of the essential figures of post-war Italian art and one of the key names of the visual renewal linked to European pop. Born in Libya and settled in Rome after World War II, he began his career with mixed media works and monochrome surfaces, later incorporating references from the urban landscape and the media. In 1962 he was included in the historic New Realists exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, alongside artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. His work is represented in institutions such as the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the MACRO in Rome, the Museo del Novecento in Milan and other international public and private collections.