1/6
Mimmo Rotella
Argentina, 1957
Retro d’affiche on canvas
148 x 215 cm
Argentina, 1957
Retro d’affiche on canvas
148 x 215 cm
Press Release
Mimmo Rotella.
"Retro-d’affiche"
Opening: March 19, 2013
March 20 – May 15, 2013
"Retro-d’affiche"
Opening: March 19, 2013
March 20 – May 15, 2013
The Marconi Foundation is very pleased to announce the exhibition Mimmo Rotella. Retro-d’affiche, which will present about thirty different retro-décollages by the artist.
Mimmo Rotella started using collage after experimenting with different artistic genres. This new technique allowed him to move away from the traditional way of painting which he did not identify with anymore.
During this time Rotella was so impressed by the posters on the walls of Piazza di Spagna in Rome that he started to tear them right off the wall and use them in his work.
“I was impressed by walls covered with torn posters. I was really fascinated because at that time I thought that painting was dead and that we needed to discover something new and contemporary. So in the evening I started tearing these posters, ripping them off the walls and I would take them to my studio where I would either alter them or keep them original. This is the story of décollage.”
The artist tore the posters directly from the walls, glued them on the canvas and then started to work on them.
The composition was made by using either the front and/or back of the posters. The overlapping torn posters were never placed randomly, but always with the aim of obtaining a balanced composition with precise ratios of colours and materials.
“When he shows the front side of the poster, Rotella highlights the colour effects through the thickness of the glued fragments. When he shows the back of the poster he highlights the material effects through the grey or reddish discolorations left by the walls and weather." (T. Trini)
Mimmo Rotella started using collage after experimenting with different artistic genres. This new technique allowed him to move away from the traditional way of painting which he did not identify with anymore.
During this time Rotella was so impressed by the posters on the walls of Piazza di Spagna in Rome that he started to tear them right off the wall and use them in his work.
“I was impressed by walls covered with torn posters. I was really fascinated because at that time I thought that painting was dead and that we needed to discover something new and contemporary. So in the evening I started tearing these posters, ripping them off the walls and I would take them to my studio where I would either alter them or keep them original. This is the story of décollage.”
The artist tore the posters directly from the walls, glued them on the canvas and then started to work on them.
The composition was made by using either the front and/or back of the posters. The overlapping torn posters were never placed randomly, but always with the aim of obtaining a balanced composition with precise ratios of colours and materials.
“When he shows the front side of the poster, Rotella highlights the colour effects through the thickness of the glued fragments. When he shows the back of the poster he highlights the material effects through the grey or reddish discolorations left by the walls and weather." (T. Trini)
The act of tearing décollage, apart from being a clear admission of dissent against traditional painting, is a way for Rotella to take control of an aspect of reality, in fact in 1961 Pierre Restany invited him to take part in the group of Nouveau Réalisme. The Mimmo Rotella. Retro-d’affiche exhibition will be displayed on both floors of the Marconi Foundation and will show a selection of retro-décollages from the early Fifties to the early Sixties.
Included works will be Nebuloso, 1954, Terrestre, 1956, Argentina, 1957, Materico, 1959.
After 1960 Rotella stopped creating purely abstract works by using words, bodies, faces and eyes portrayed in the posters as in the Marilyn series.
The show will continue at Studio Marconi ‘65 where Rotella’s litographs will be displayed.
The exhibition at via Tadino 17 will show various graphics such as photolithograph and frottage (a technique used to obtain the image on a sheet of paper by passing solvents through the printed page) which Rotella created during the Seventies from ads or images found in magazines.
Included works will be Nebuloso, 1954, Terrestre, 1956, Argentina, 1957, Materico, 1959.
After 1960 Rotella stopped creating purely abstract works by using words, bodies, faces and eyes portrayed in the posters as in the Marilyn series.
The show will continue at Studio Marconi ‘65 where Rotella’s litographs will be displayed.
The exhibition at via Tadino 17 will show various graphics such as photolithograph and frottage (a technique used to obtain the image on a sheet of paper by passing solvents through the printed page) which Rotella created during the Seventies from ads or images found in magazines.