La Pressa

Mimmo Rotella

Date: 1966

Medium: Artypo on Canvas

Dimensions: 99.8 x 141 cm

The present work belongs to the Artypo series, a term used for artworks produced with techniques involving printing processes. In the print shop, the artist selects from the poster proofs used to check the register and the quality of the images and colours, proofs normally destined for the shredder, since they are used to warm up the press and are overprinted at random with various images. The selected posters are then either mounted on canvas or plasticised.

"Each work not only possesses the power of the pure or superimposed image, but also acquires a new dimension through the technological côté of the plasticisation (usually three millimetres thick). These new works were not conceived to be framed in the traditional manner, but to remain as pure objects, like a tapestry, for instance." (M. Rotella, Diari 1970-2000).

Provenance

Private collection, Italy

Literature

1977, Fagiolo dell’Arco, in “Maestri contemporanei”, n. H, fig. H;
2004, Rovigo, Accademia dei Concordi (cat.), n 48, fig. 48
2008, Rotella Playing Artypo (cat.), ripr.
2011, Par erreur. Mimmo Rotella Artypo (cat.), n.25, fig.25
2020, Celant, Catalogo Ragionato; Volume secondo, 1962 – 1973, Tomo III, n 128, p.1178,

Exhibited

1977, Verano Brianza (Monza – Brianza), Centro Culturale la Filanda, (cat.), ripr.;
2007, Roma, Galleria Mucciaccia, (cat.), n.30, p.108, ripr. p.76

Shown at VOENA

• Independent 20th Century — 24 – 27 September 2026, The Breuer, 945 Madison Avenue, New York