MARIO SCHIFANO
30 PAINTINGS 1962 - 1986

Curated by: Andrea Alibrandi
12th May – 28th July 2006
Open: 4.00 pm – 7.30 pm
Closed on Saturdays and public holidays
OPENING: Friday 12th May 2006, 6.30 pm

CATALOGUE: photographed, 17x12 cm, 30 colour reproductions. Curated by Andrea Alibrandi, biography by Susanna Fabiani. Edizioni Il Ponte, Florence.

Galleria Il Ponte devotes an important exhibition to Mario Schifano, presenting thirty of his paintings dating from 1962 to 1986. These form a nucleus of work which reveals the fundamental character of this artist: his identity first and foremost as a painter, which pushes him incessantly to make his painting collide with the language of mass media. As Bonito Oliva writes (in Schifano – Works 1957-1997, Milan, 1988):  “…for Schifano, being modern means adapting a certain medium (painting), with all its golden history, to the quantitive character of the present age…” His experiments in photography and cinematography - as well as the myriad images he borrows from television, magazines and advertising - are expressions of his fascination with all forms of communication. His mission is to make painting a contemporary medium in an age where the only reality is a televised one.  Instants, meetings, situations and silhouettes abound in the pictorial space he creates, where quick brush-strokes, full of wisdom, define and rub out images, provoking yet more suggestions in a see-sawing game of memories and returns. Many elements find a place in his painting, but none is predominant, there are no hierarchies; they merely provide a starting point for his imagination, which reinvents and reworks them.

Press office: Susanna Fabiani: catalogue and photographs available on request
susy@galleriailponte.com