Mario Schifano Enter a
feeling, not
a gallery.
Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
Mario Schifano
Mario Schifano: The Pioneer of Roman Pop Art Mario Schifano (1934–1998) was an Italian painter and collagist who emerged as a pivotal figure in the burgeoning Roman postmodern art scene of the 1960s. Born in Khoms, Libya—then under Italian colonial rule—Schifano’s early life instilled in him a rebellious spirit that would permeate his artistic practice and propel him to international acclaim. Moving with his family to Rome shortly afte
r WWII, he pursued autodidactic learning, initially honing his skills as a ceramics restorer before dedicating himself wholeheartedly to painting. His formative years were marked by an encounter with the influential art critic Pierre Restany and the groundbreaking “International Exhibition of the New Realists” at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York—a moment that cemented Schifano’s position within the vanguard of European Pop Art. Ear…