(Pistoia 1901–1980 Viareggio)
Cavallo e cavaliere, 1943, signed twice and dated, mixed media on thin cardboard, 46 x 31 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Fondazione Marino Marini, Pistoia and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity.

Provenance:
Private Collection, Switzerland (gift from the artist)
European Private Collection (inherited from the above)

Note:
The paper is sketched and inscribed on the reverse.

“Marini’s paintings are polychrome x-rays of his sculpture. They are sections, or more precisely, cross-sections of this three-dimensional universal world that starts from the infinitely small and achieves its essential coagulation in a finite balance (between space and time) and some-times even reaches infinity.
Even their magical and rich colour palette is completely ‘invented’. They are colours created by Marino’s imagination, colours that may not have existed before and that derive, as if through a budding process, from contrasting and yet harmonious contacts.” (Erich Steingraber)

The image of horse and rider is a form in continuous evolution for Marino Marini. It is at first joyful, then tragic, and finally destructive.
In this 1943 equestrian group, Marini still prefers harmonious shapes to the sharp angles and broken lines that he would later embrace, a reflection of a soul damaged by war and now lacking confidence in the world.
In spite of having abandoned the myth of the heroic and victorious man, in this work the artist returns to a vision of the rider who, stiffened on his steed, stretches his arms and legs in an attempt to maintain a precarious balance,
alluding to the future results of his actions.