Mino Maccari - Author's Test

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the depicted subject, an attempt to convey their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation. Mino Maccari has dedicated much of his production to the portrait genre, always with an expressionistic and caricatural verve tinged with social satire.

This subject, too, is treated concisely by artist Mino Maccari, aiming to highlight features that are not only physiognomic but also character-specific, in a sort of caricatural expressionism. The forms are drawn with a broad, coarse, nervous, and squared stroke. The space is completely two-dimensional, and the figures are compressed into the foreground. The artist begins with phenomenal reality, with the physiognomy of the portrayed characters, but then departs from it for a deeper, existential analysis, always conducted by Mino Maccari with irony and harshness. We are therefore faced with a type of interpretation that prioritizes the expressive, almost violent, force of the work over its verisimilitude.

Mino Maccari was born in Siena in 1898 and died in Rome in 1989. A prominent figure in Italian culture, he was a writer, painter, and journalist. His artistic career flourished especially after World War II. In 1962, he was appointed president of the Accademia di San Luca, and a solo exhibition of his work was held in New York. Mino Maccari produced a vast body of drawings, prints, and watercolors, consistently characterized by an expressionistic flair for bold design and a vibrant pictorial interpretation.

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