Mario Schifano - Buy or sell works
20 September 1934, Homs (Libya) - 26 January 1998, Rome (Italy)
Mario Schifano was an Italian painter, film producer and musician who is considered to be one of the most outstanding representatives of the Italian postmodernist movement.
He was born in Libya in 1934 during the Italian colonial period as the son of an employee of the Italian Ministry of Education. After the end of the Second World War, the family moved back to Rome, which was to remain the centre of Schifano's life until his death in 1998. He became an artist via his work as a restorer. At the beginning, Schifano concentrated on the Art Informel style, and belonged to the „Scuola di Piazza del Popolo“, like Tano Festa and Franco Angeli. One of the highlights of his career came in 1962, when he took part in the New Realists exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. Here his pieces were displayed alongside those of international artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. American pop art left its imprint. Above all, the works of Jim Dine had a lasting influence on his work. From this time on, Schifano began using elements from the advertising industry for his creative work. His excessive lifestyle and drug use earned him the nickname Maledetto (eng. “the accursed”).
His works have continued to enjoy great popularity even today. In 2017 the Fondazione Prada in Milan devoted a solo exhibition to him.
On 27 November 2013, his 1963 diptych Incidente fetched a price of €446,800 at a contemporary art auction in Dorotheum.