Homs, 1934 – Rome, 1998

Mario Schifano was born in Homs, Libya, in 1934, where his father worked as an archaeologist in charge of excavations at Leptis Magna. In the early 1940s he moved to Rome and, after an apprenticeship at the Museo Etrusco di Villa Giulia, he decided to devote himself exclusively to painting. His first exhibition was in 1959 at the Galleria Appia Antica in Rome.

He participated in the artistic movement Scuola di Piazza del Popolo together with the artists Francesco Lo Savio, Mimmo Rotella, Giuseppe Uncini, Giosetta Fioroni, Tano Festa and Franco Angeli.

In 1962, a trip to New York gave him the opportunity to come into contact with Pop Art; he met Andy Warhol and frequented the Factory. His painting attracted the interest of Ileana Sonnabend, with whom he signed an exclusive contract.

Influenced by the avant-garde aesthetics of Pop Art and fascinated by new technologies and advertising, his paintings – initially monochrome screens – gradually became populated with numbers, letters, road signs and renown brands, as Esso and Coca Cola. Revisitations of art history and futurism in particular also appear.

In the 1960s, he also began his first cinematic experiments and made several feature films. His interest in the contamination of painting, music, film, photography and video will mark his entire career.

During the 1970s, he experimented with new industrial enamels of great brilliance and transparency, which dried very quickly and often used emulsified canvas as a support. Among the most important works of the 1980s are the series dedicated to advertising trademarks, with quotations of easily recognisable everyday images.

The works of the latter period testify to his renewed interest in technology and multimedia. He died in Rome on 26 January 1998.