Bozzetto per Il Selvaggio

Bozzetto per Il Selvaggio (Sketch for Il Selvaggio) is an original drawing on paper, realized around by the great Italian artist and journalist, Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 - 1989) in occasion of the fourth issue of Il Selvaggio published in 1933.

Black China Ink (fountain pen and felt-tip pen) drawing on ivory-colored and watermarked paper “The best paper”. 

Dated in pencil by the author on the higher margin: (June 3rd, 1933)

Excellent condition, except for minor aging sings or some dust on the paper.

With the incredible satiric and caustic touch of the illustrator of the Italaina review Il Selvaggio, this contemporray artwork depicts a sort of optical illusion: two palettes with brushes and tubes of color hide two faces of two officers, identifiable by the headdress. This perception can also take place in reverse, you can guess firstly the two officers and then the palettes. Looking at the hatch, quick and pleasant, you are amazed by the fluidity of the sign.  In pencil on the upper and lower margin, autograph notes of the author: "4 JUN 33 P.76/ base/P24 HAPRT33".  In the middle useful indications for printing.

This original Maccari’s drawing, standing out for the funny meaning and the freshness of the sign, surely could enrich your private collection with a Italian satiric touch and elegance!

Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 – Rome, 1989)

Mino Maccari was a popular Italian painter and engraver with a caustic personality, called in 1924 by Angiolo Bencini to collaborate as illustrator for the magazine Il Selvaggio, an admittedly intransigent fascist, revolutionary and anti-bourgeois magazine. Here Maccari published his first engravings. and after he took over the direction of the Savage which he held until 1942.

In 1959, he became the director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome; in 1963, he won Antonio Feltrinelli's prize for painting and became president of the San Luca Academy in 1962. In the same year of one of the biggest Italian accademic honour, Maccari managed to obtain a personal exhibition at Gallery 63 in New York.

His production of drawings, watercolors, tempera, lithographs is exhausted, sometimes in collaboration with prestigious publishing houses (Strapaese, Il selvaggio), of satirical, political or erotic subject matters.