Exotic

Mimmo Rotella

Date: 1961

Medium: Signed and dated 61; signed and titled on the reverse, Décollage on canvas

Dimensions: 106 × 125 cm

In Exotic, Rotella acts as an archaeologist of the present. Layer by layer, the tear uncovers pieces of a shared imagination built on cinema and advertising: a woman in a yellow dress and pearl necklace, a man's face, a head of blond hair and scattered lettering, set among passages of black, red and blue. The title suggests a distant elsewhere, but the material is the rough surface of Rome's walls. Pierre Restany wrote that in these works "the star who has 'burst' is infinitely less a star, yet infinitely more a woman." Torn from their original context, the figures take on a new presence.

The work was first shown at Galerie J in Paris in 1962 in the exhibition Cinecittà. It then appeared in the landmark Pop Art exhibitions at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (1964) and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (1965), which places it at the centre of the dialogue between Nouveau Réalisme and Pop. It is registered in the Archivio Fondazione Mimmo Rotella, Milan, under no. 0/83 DC 961/000.

Provenance

Galerie J, Paris;
Galerie Mathias Fels et C.ie, Paris;
Private collection, Italy (Acquired from the above in the 1970s);
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Literature

P. Restany, Rotella, dal décollage alla nuova immagine, Milan, 1963, no. 48 (illustrated);
A. Berton, R. Perna, Mimmo Rotella e la Galerie J, Milan, 2012, p. 69 (illustrated);
G Celant, Mimmo Rotella, Catalogo Ragionato, Volume II 1944-61, Milan, 2016, p. 714, n. 1961 080, (illustrated in colour).

Exhibited

Parigi, Galerie J, Cinecittà, 28 February - 23 March 1962; Copenhagen, Galerie Passepartout, Cinecittà, 19 February 1963;
L'Aja, Gementemuseum, Pop Art, 1964;
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Pop Art. Nouveau Realisme. Etc..., 1965, n. 128;
Locarno, Pinacoteca Casa Rusca, Rotella e il cinema, 12 March - 14 August 2016, illustrated.