Tuttestelle, 1967

MARIO SCHIFANO

(Homs, Italian Libya 1934 – Rome 1998) is considered the greatest exponent of Italian Pop Art. Influenced by the greatest contemporary foreign innovators, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, he developed a strongly avant-garde style. Huge, monochrome canvases, the use of numbers and letters, and subjects inspired by advertising brands (his “Coca Cola” and “Esso” are famous). The use of various materials such as enamel and acrylic and wrapping paper as a support. In addition to experimenting with new techniques, including graphic reworking through the computer (“Computerized Canvases”), he is among the first to propose contamination between painting, music, cinema, photography, and video. In the representation of nature he tends towards the abstract and informal, just think of his famous “Anemic Landscapes”, the “Interrupted Views” and the “Wheat Fields”. Always close to pop culture, he can be considered a true artist “of his time”. He creates album covers for contemporary musical groups, such as Equipe 84, as well as designing the Maglia Rosa twice, as a good cycling enthusiast. He died of a heart attack, in Rome in 1998, at just 64 years old.