Senza Titolo

The year 1960 was important for Schifano as it was then that he began to use alternative materials to make his paintings and works on paper. This move was a prelude to the Arte Povera movement which began in the late 1960s, and served to revitalize contemporary Italian painting. Although Schifano’s work of this period looked to the past, he refused to be constrained by his country's history.  The artist combined his use of unconventional materials with the aesthetic rigor of Minimalism, incorporating the industrial immediacy of Pop Art while staying true to his European roots.

It is from this period that the present examples date and are early examples of the artist’s work. All colorful geometric abstractions, each work features enamel that has been painted onto paper. The enamel, a diffused industrial product, has been applied in heavy strokes to form neatly shaped frames. These frames eventually act as a window onto the modern world, a world that the viewer cannot access.