MARINO MARINI

20th Century Artists
Bath

Marini’s great subject was the horse and rider, a theme he returned to time and time again. He saw the relationship as representing the tensions between man and nature, or reason and sensuality. This theme was also linked to theatricality: Marini would often feature dancers, jugglers and acrobats in his work, such as in the 'Grande Teatro delle Maschere' portfolio.

MARINO MARINI

Marino Marini in Germinaia

Sculptor, painter, draughtsman and printmaker, Marino Marini (1901-1980) remains one of Italy’s greatest artists of the twentieth century. Born in Pistoia, Marini said "For me Tuscany is a starting point, which is innate and is part of my being.” His legacy remains there with Florence's Museo Marino Marini as well as the Marino Marini Foundation, Pistoia, Italy.

After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where his influences were Greco-Roman antiquity and the early Renaissance, Marino succeeded one of his mentors, Arturo Martini, as professor at the Scuola d’Arte di Villa Reale in Monza near Milan in 1929, a position he retained until 1940. In 1943 Marini fled the war to settle in the Ticino, Switzerland, where he was encouraged and inspired by leading sculptors such as Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier.

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'MARINO MARINI' - pdf catalogue

1948 was a turning point in Marini’s career: a room was dedicated to his work at the 24th Venice Biennale. Here he met Henry Moore, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and Curt Valentin, the American art dealer who organized an exhibition for him in New York in 1950. Whilst in New York, he met contemporaries such as Jean Arp and Alexander Calder. He also conceived The Angel of the City (L'angelo della città) in 1948 for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Marini gained an international reputation with three major exhibitions of his work in Amsterdam, Brussels, and New York where his ‘Great Horse' became part of the Rockefeller Collection. In 1952 Marini won Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale and his international renown was confirmed.

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Marini’s great subject was the horse and rider, a theme he returned to time and time again. He saw the relationship as representing the tensions between man and nature, or reason and sensuality. He said ‘the entire history of humanity and nature can be found in the figure of the horse and rider, whatever the era’ and explained his ‘discovery of Etruscan art was an extraordinary event. This is why my art lies on themes from the past, as the link between man and horse, rather than on modern subjects like the man/machine relationship."

The horse and rider theme in Marini’s work was linked to theatricality: he would often feature dancers, jugglers and acrobats in his work, such as Grande Teatro delle Maschere. These figures symbolize the attempt to achieve a balance in life between pleasure and duty, or even life and death. They display the optimism that emerges from Marini’s work - despite having lived through the horrors of two world wars - and the characteristic exuberance of his palette. He once said, ‘I looked for the origins of every idea in colour.’

'The horse has been replaced, in its economic and military functions, by the machine, the tractor, the automobile or the tank. It has become a prime symbol of sport or of decadent luxury, and, in the minds of of most of our contemporaries, it is rapidly becoming a kind of lost myth.

Marino Marini

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