MARIO SCHIFANO

Schifano‘s painting is, first of all, a Dada gesture…

—Vittorio Rubiu

Particolare di esterno (1962) is one of the first paintings in Mario Schifano’s oeuvre to incorporate a brand logo—in this instance, the outlines of the trefoil-shaped logo for petroleum producer Cities Service (now more familiar as CITGO). Belonging to the so-called Piazza del Popolo school in Rome, Schifano turned towards the urban environment as a conceptual stage, using fragments from billboards to investigate issues of propaganda and consumerism. Art critic Vittorio Rubiu has noted how Schifano’s subtle deconstructions of familiar signs amounts to a Dadaist gesture of absurdity and protest. Particolare di esterno is exemplary of a unique mode of Pop art, one which seized on the trajectory of Italian Futurism while paying heed to consonant developments in the United States.

MARIO SCHIFANO
Particolare di esterno
1962
Enamel on paper mounted on canvas
63 x 55 1/8 inches (160 x 140 cm)
© Mario Schifano. All Rights Reserved, DACS