Mario Radice, To a Woman from Malabar, Screen Print, 1964

Image dimensions: 24.3 x 18 cm. A una donna del Malabar is an amazing colored serigraph on paper, realized by the Italian artist, Mario Radice and published in 1964 by La Nuova Foglio. Hand-signed and numbered in pencil on lower margin. from a total edition of 100 prints, including seventeen artist's proofs, numbered in Roman numerals and out of the commerce. This is the personal Mario Radice's interpretation of Charles Baudelaire's "A una Donna del Malabar" poem, a colorful illustration of this poem, realized represented impossible geometries and a full mastery of this technique. This contemporary artwork, in excellent conditions, accompanies the poem that is printed on Fabriano watermarked olive green paper. Mario Radice (Como, 1898 - Milan, 1987) The Italian painter, considered one of the leaders of abstract art, began his artistic training with the painter Achille Zambelli and the sculptor Pietro Clerici. After a military parenthesis and a job as an accountant for a railway company, Mario Radice attended his uncle Guido Vitali, general manager of the paper mills in Fabriano, and thus became familiar with the qualities of the paper and soon founded the company Mario Radice & C., based in Bergamo. In February 1930, settling in Como and deciding to devote himself exclusively to painting, cultivated in his first studio in Como on Via delle Cinque Giornate, shared with Rho. Their fellowship, which was joined by the younger Giuseppe Terragni, formed the first nucleus of the so-called Como Group, a group of personalities oriented towards the renewal of the arts and architecture - as far from the liberty as from the Novecento style -, operating between Como and Milan in the name of a fruitful international opening. He also designed furniture for the firm Augusto and Filippo Proserpio of Mariano Comense, obtaining the first prize in 1933 at the National Craft Show in Florence. He was one of the founders of the Quadrante publishing company and of the magazine of the same name, directed by Massimo Bontempelli and Pier Maria Bardi and close to the Il Milione gallery. The Football match oil is from 1933, which, although figurative, already has a stasis and a geometric tension that prefigures the imminent evolution towards abstraction. Between 1939 and 1943 he worked hard on investigations and projects for modern and functional churches, but the impressive project was interrupted by the death of Cattaneo. In the forties he was an almost permanent guest at the Venice International Biennale and collaborated in the foundation of the M.A.C. (Concrete Art Movement). In the meantime he also engages in the activity of art critic for some newspapers and holds private drawing lessons and his life will continue in continuous successes and tireless work.