Fabio Mauri
(Rome, 1926 – 2009)
Fabio Mauri is one of the masters of the Italian post-war avant-garde. He lived between Bologna and Milan until he settled in Rome in 1957. During his artistic career, he taught "Aesthetics of experimentation" for 20 years at the Academy of Fine Arts in L'Aquila and during '42 he founded the magazine "Setaccio" with Pier Paolo Pasolini. In 1994, his first retrospective exhibition was held at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome. The artist debuts with a solo show presented by Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1955 at Aureliana Gallery in Rome. In 1957 Mauri begins to work on the series Schermi, his version of the monochrome, through zeroing research that involves all the artists at that time. Since 1964 Mauri reflects on the specificities of European culture and the symbols of its history - war, conversion, madness - that have become key elements in his artistic practice from the 70s onwards. This is where the performances of the 1970s What is Fascism, Jewess, and Futurist Grand Evening 1909 - 1939 were born. Fiction is a further means of involving the spectators to recreate a network of sensations between action and audience. The idea escapes from the confines of the canvas, through acts of a past not yet disposed of, and forever intolerable. Mauri’s work avoids unique interpretations, due to the variety of the themes he dealt with in his artistic career. If the core elements in his works are, on one side, the sense of ethical and social responsibility of both past and present history, Mauri’s research is also marked by the advent of cinema and television: the projected image and the screen become fundamental themes in his work.
Among his relevant solo, we can mention: Fabio Mauri (Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, 1954); Pile a luce solida (XIV Triennale, Milan 1968); Vitalità del negativo nell’arte italiana, 1960 – 1970 (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1970-71); Inside out (Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, 1993); Biennale di Venezia (Venice, 1974-1978-1993-2003-2009-2011-2013-2015); Opere e azioni 1954 – 1994 (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma,1994); Minimalia: An Italian Vision in 20th Century Art (MoMA PS1, New York, 1999); Fabio Mauri - The Mental Screen (Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing, 2003); Fabio Mauri, THE END (Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2012); Documenta XIII (Kassel, 2013); Retrospettiva a luce solida (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, MADRE, Napoli, 2016).
