Arachidina

Mimmo Rotella

Date: 1963

Medium: Signed and dated 'Rotella / 63' (lower left), Décollage on canvas

Dimensions: 138 × 95.3 cm

Arachidina is among Mimmo Rotella’s most iconic works. During the period between 1961 and 1963 Rotella felt a frustration with what he saw as a stagnant art world which was not moving forward, and after having seen new tendencies and explorations in painting whilst frequenting the Tartaruga and Salita galleries in Rome, he sought to extend his creative vocabulary by using advertising and film posters. In particular Rotella focused on branding, marketing and the enticing display of products for sale which had became the modern-day protagonists of commercial and cultural communication and promotion.

Choosing images from both film posters and contemporary advertising such as Birra, Il Punto e Mezzo or The Hot Marilyn (all 1962) and by stripping them from the walls and working on them with a burin, he subverted and changed the meaning of the images. The art critic Guido Le Noci perhaps more accurately described them as 'doppio décollage' (double décollage) after encountering Rotella’s solo exhibition in Apollinaire Gallery, Milan in 1962. In fact the artist was very careful when stripping posters from walls and carefully manipulated the obtained fragments which were crucial in illustrating his desired impression.

Provenance

Private Collection, Milan.

Literature

G. Celant, Rotella, Milan 2004, pp. 259, 548.
G. Celant, Mimmo Rotella.Décollages e retro d’affiches, exh. cat. Milan, 2014, p. 280, no. 423.
A. Soldaini, Mimmo Rotella, exh. cat., London, 2015, illustrated p. 104, and p. 206, no. 57.
G. Celant, Mimmo Rotella: Catalogue raisonné, vol. I: 1944–61, Milan, 2016, p. 85; vol. II: 1962-1973, Milan, 2020, pp. 806, 1112, no. 1963 072.
A. Piazzoli and P. S. Ubiali (eds.), Oltre la Pop-Art. La Mec-Art Italiana, exh. cat., Bergamo, 2020, p. 8, illustrated.

Exhibited

Milan, Rotonda di via Besana, Mimmo Rotella, April–May 1975 (illustrated, unpaged).
Ferrara, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Mimmo Rotella, 24 September–5 November 1978.
Nice, Musée d’art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Mimmo Rotella. Rétrospective, 11 December 1999–3 April 2000, no. 78.
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Mimmo Rotella. Décollages e retro d’affiches, 13 June–31 August 2014, no. 166.
London, Robilant+Voena, Mimmo Rotella, 6 February–24 March 2015.
Triennale di Milano, Arts & Foods–Rituals since 1851, 9 April–1 November 2015.
Rome, Galleria Nationale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Mimmo Rotella Manifiesto, 30 October, 2018–10 February 2019.
New York, Center for Italian Modern Art, From Depero to Rotella: Italian Commercial Posters Between Advertising and Art, 16 February–10 June 2023, no. 33.
Seoul, The Hyundai Seoul, 800 Years of European Arts, 5 June – 18 September 2024.