Mario Schifano

Italian painter born in Libya, Mario Schifano is known worldwide for his postmodern collages, combining advertising imagery, wrapping paper, and painted elements. While his early works in the early 1960s were large monochrome canvases, he later experimented with various materials including industrial enamel, Plexiglas plates, and even video photograms. Among his most wellknown works is the series of advertising signs, but during the 1960s, he also embarked on a vast array of political works exploring the Vietnam War. Palma is part of a series of tree paintings that the artist started in the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States, where the natural world is evoked through fragments, as if surreal. Most of these paintings lack sky or context, and when elements are present, they are abstract and geometric. Mario Schifano’s Palma is thus a “pattern” of study and fascination, where the composition, use of color, and stylized forms are paramount.