VOLUME ONE - Mimmo Rotella Institute

The publication is being developed in partnership with the Mimmo Rotella Institute – established by Inna and Aghnessa Rotella in 2012 and directed by Antonella Soldaini–and the Mimmo Rotella Foundation, headed by Rocco Guglielmo.

A scientific analysis and assessment is underway on the works executed during 1944–1961 –that is, from the artist’s experimental research phase–first through figurative painting, then through geometric abstraction – to his invention of the décollage and retro d’affiche techniques. Unfolding in chronological order, the Catalogue highlights the various stages of development of the artist’s language, enabling a broader interpretation of the works executed in the period. Rotella started making use of wall posters in Rome in the early 1950s, and this became his hallmark. Thus the artist developed two parallel techniques: with the recto of the affiches he created décollages, which were initially similar to an informal style typical of the contemporary investigations of Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana and then more figurative and iconic, in line with the pop trend that was taking hold internationally; with the verso of the posters, covered in wall matter and marked by mold, scratches, and traces of lime and plaster, his retro d’affiches took shape. By adopting posters, starting in the early 1950s and through the practice of décollage and retro d’affiche, Rotella investigated into the independent functioning of art, as a means to define a process of depersonalization in the attempt to create a space “beyond”, enabling the objectification of real space. In the abolishing of all hierarchies between subjects, Rotella’s narrative in the period analyzed proves compelling and spectacular, encompassing icons from worlds as far apart as those of advertising and films.