post-cubism and neo-informal - andré villers, marcello mariani

1970 / 1980

Andre Villers, French photographer and painter, was born in Betancourt in 1930. In 1953 he met Pablo Picasso with whom he establishes a strong friendship and professional collaboration. He works with numerous artists, including Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, Joan Miro, Max Ernst, Hans Hartung and many other representatives of the twentieth century avant-garde. Parallel to photographic experimentation developed a highly graphic and pictorial research which goes on even today.

In Villers poetic search of light and shapes it is expressed through a geometric-abstract figuration, close to the original Cubism of Braque, without becoming trapped. His compositional style is imbued with a lyrical-chromatic research almost evanescent, reminiscent in its original way "conceptual friendship" with Hans Hartung, dating back to the period immediately preceding the date of the works on show. A pictorial journey to Villers that through the analysis of cubism and lyrical abstractionism, arrives to his personal conception of abstract figuration. The recent exhibition of 2015 at the Gagosian Gallery in Geneva with Picasso, reveals his deep creative experience in European painting of the '900.

Andrè Villers

Abstract Compositions - mixed media on paper - 1970/76

Marcello Mariani

Archetypal shapes - mixed media on canvas - 1978/83  

Marcello Mariani prefers, often, engage in large scenographic canvases, where the sign, matter, the spot are painting words or more precisely visual lexemes ... Chaotic and tumultuous substructures of his paintings, confirming the accuracy of the definition of abstract expressionism, coined in the 50s to an important trend of the informal art ... Marcello Mariani through the streets of matterism with strong and precise references to the poetics of the wall, which has transferred on paintings the signs of aging and the tactile significance of the plaster, confirming its authenticity as a primary role painter in the neo-informal trend, since the 80’s.

 From "Marcello Mariani or existentiality of painting" by Giorgio Di Genova

Marcello Mariani was born in 1938 in L’Aquila. His first solo exhibition dates back to 1954. In '56 knows Osvaldo Licini. In 1958 he exhibited in Paris where attended Jean-Paul Sartre. In Naples, during the studies in the Academy, he studied under Domenico Spinosa and Antonio Scordia. In '60 deepens in Rome knowledge of Bruno Lisi and Luigi Boille. He met Robert Rauschenberg, Conrad Marca-Relli, Willem de Kooning, Tal-Coat, Franz Kline. In '64 he founded with Giuseppe Desiato "Group 5". In '74 he meets Joseph Beuys in Abruzzo and he works in his studio in L'Aquila with Piero Sadun; In the same year he exhibited in Civitavecchia with Accardi, Consagra and Guttuso. In 1977 he exhibited with Brindisi, Marotta and Marinucci at the Ferri Arte Gallery. In '79 he exhibited at the Center of Modern Art in Melbourne. In 1984, at the Spanish Fortress of the National Museum of Abruzzo in L'Aquila, it was inaugurated its first post-informal retrospective "Archetypal Shape Harmony". In 1987 and in 1988 is present in "Current Alternatives" curated by Enrico Crispolti. In the ‘90 he exposes with Conceptual Art masters (Pistoletto, Kounellis, Mauri, Accardi, Paolini, Catalano etc) and holds a series of exhibitions on Neo-Informalpainting curated by Vito Apuleo, which will conclude with the two international appointments in Melbourne in 1998 and 1999. The year 2000 begins with a series of exhibitions curated by Giorgio Di Genova on Marcello Mariani’s, informal art placement in today's research. In 2006 he inaugurated the exhibition "The Colors of the Sacred" by Silvia Pegoraro at the Experimental Museum of Contemporary Art in San Domenico. In 2007 he exhibited with Burri, Vedova, Marca-Relli, Pollock, Kline, Afro, Tapies. in the exhibition "In the Sign of the Matter: European and American Informal Painting"; In the same year he released the book-reportage by Gianni Berengo Gardin: "Marcello Mariani, Paths of Light." In 2008 the book was presented at the Fondazione Mazzotta in Milan. In 2009 he exhibited at Palazzo Venezia National Museum in Rome, in the retrospective exhibition "The Pictorial Way to the Sacred, 1957-2007, curated by Gabriele Simongini with texts by Claudio Strinati and Enrico Crispolti. In 2009 he exhibited at Palazzo Venezia National Museumin Rome. 2011 is the year of the 54th Venice Biennale with Vittorio Sgarbi and the exhibition at Vittoriano Monumental Complex in Rome with Louis Godart in the exhibition "The Italian Art Unity in Diversity of the Regions". In 2012 he exhibited again at the Vittoriano with Luigi Boille, Vasco Bendini and Giulio Turcato. In 2015 he is represented in Milan at the EXPO Italian Pavilion with Berengo Gardin and at Le Stelline Foundation in a documentary exhibition with Lucio Fontana.