Marino Marini

MARINO MARINI (Pistoia, 1901 - Milan, 1980).
"Miracolo", 1978.
Etching and aquatint engraving, P.A. copy.
Signed and justified by hand.
Bibliography: G. Guastalla, Marino Marini. Catalog raisonné of the graphic work (engravings and lithographs), 1919-1980. Edizioni Graphis Arte, Livorno, 1990, nºA210 (III.).
Measurements: 56 x 44,5 cm (print); 76 x 56,5 cm (paper).

Sculptor and painter, Marino Marini began his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and from 1929 he began to travel the world; he also taught in Monza until 1940 and, from that year on, at the Brera Academy in Milan. In 1930, fully established in the world of sculpture, Marini made large-scale human figures, usually women or acrobats in bronze; but, from 1935, he discovered the themes that would dominate his mature works: the horse and rider and archaic sculpture, particularly Egyptian and Etruscan. Under this sign he produced the works that earned the recognition of his contemporaries: vigorous figures characterized by archaizing forms and great hieratic rigidity, devoid of movement, which seem to carry with them a terrible internal tragedy. He also made a large number of graphic works and portraits in bronze, of which perhaps the best known is that of Igor Stravinsky (1951). Among his works are Gente (1929), El juglar (1933), Púgil (1935) and Milagro (1955). His facet as a painter began around 1948, when he was living in Switzerland. As with his sculptural works, many of his paintings are close to abstract art; over time they became more dramatic and distorted with rougher surfaces. In 1952 he was awarded the Venice Biennale prize.