(Pistoia 1901–1980 Viareggio)
Composizione/Composition, undated, executed in the first half of the 1960s, signed, mixed technique on paper laid on panel, 42 x 32 cm

The work is registered in the Fondazione Marino Marini, Pistoia under the archive no. 524 and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Giorgio Chierici Collection, Reggio Emilia
Acquired from the above by present owner in 2007
Private Collection, Italy

Literature:
Galleria d’Arte Marchetti, Figura & Figure-La Figurazione nella pittura italiana del Novecento, Rome, 16 April–30 May 2015, p. 56

“The myth was leaving room to man’s tragic destiny, men had discovered something bigger than them, something they could not dominate and that had become dangerous for humankind. The artist perceived this danger more profoundly and his fear became wider.”

Marino Marini

Marino Marini’ s art has always been known for horses and riders. Throughout the years of World War II, he portrayed restless or satirical figures, with the desire to underline the absurdity of man’s will to dominate and his belief in a greatness that did not actually exist.

In the years that followed the war, Marini’s harmonic shapes opened to cuts and holes that recall the work of artists like Calder and Picasso. In the Fifties Marini’s riders became thinner, they were mutilated and reduced to merely abstract and expressive shapes that fell off their rearing and collapsing horses. The last riders and horses, like the one in this sale, executed in the Sixties and Seventies became even more square and cubist.