A few months before the centenary of the artist’s birth, the digital version of the catalogue raisonné of the work of Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1st April 1926 – 19th May 2009) is now online, preceding, in an unprecedented and experimental way, the print edition that will be published in 2026. The Italian catalogue will be published by Allemandi Editore, while the international English edition will be published by Hatje Cantz. The digital catalogue will be launched before the print edition in order to solicit potentially new information about works by Mauri that may be included in the print version.
While many catalogues raisonnés have been published partly online, this is one of the first to be published online in its entirety, in order to provide wide public access to the artist, his art, and his ideas. In addition, to launch the catalogue first in a digital version is appropriate to the artist, given the nature of Mauri’s practice, which envisaged and explored the power of screen-based experience in art and society as early as in the 1950s.
Schermo
Born in Rome on 1 April 1926 into a family of book publishers and distributors, in 1945 at the age of 19, upon discovering the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, Mauri fell into a deep depression. He spent several years in psychiatric hospitals and religious institutions, where he taught ceramics and art to children orphaned by the war. In 1953, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937) was exhibited in Milan, where Mauri’s family was living at the time. That same year, Mauri decided to pursue a professional career as an artist, and his first solo exhibition was held at the Galleria Il Cavallino in Venice in 1954, where he presented a series of early works reminiscent of Picasso.
Mauri combined his visual art practice with theatre directing, and he also worked at his uncle Valentino Bompiani’s publishing house. In those years, he met Umberto Eco, with whom he worked particularly on the new edition of the Almanacco Bompiani.
In 1957, the artist created his first Schermo (screen), simply made by painting a black border around the white rectangular blank center of a paper; this was followed in 1958 by his iconic Schermi (screens) made by stretching wet paper or canvas over a bulging stretcher shaped like a television screen.
From 1979 onwards, Mauri taught Aesthetics of Experimentation at the Academy of Fine Arts in L’Aquila and, together with his students, produced the performances Gran Serata Futurista 1909-1930 (Futurist Grand Soirée 1909-1930) in 1980.
He retired from teaching in 1996 and in the year 2000 founded Studio Fabio Mauri – Associazione per l’Arte L’Esperimento del Mondo, a non-profit institution dedicated to the production and preservation of his works and archive.
Oeuvre
As the editor Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev comments: ‘This catalogue raisonné of works by Italian artist Fabio Mauri comprises over 3,600 entries and constitutes the most comprehensive study of the artist’s oeuvre to date. One of the leading figures of the post-war Italian avant-garde, Mauri was a multifaceted figure – visual artist, writer, educator, publisher – whose work is distinguished by its prophetic insights into the power of the screen in contemporary society. His paintings, sculptures, installations and performances were based on research into the formation of ideology, historical trauma and personal memory, and the manipulation of communication technologies in the rise of 20th-century Fascisms.’
The result of many years of cataloguing the works and research strands of the artist and intellectual, and edited by Christov-Bakargiev, the catalogue consists of images and descriptions of over 3,600 works and is accompanied by an introductory essay by Christov-Bakargiev, the scholarly editor of the volume. The catalogue also features new essays by other members of the Comitato Scientifico of Studio Fabio Mauri – Associazione per l’Arte L’Esperimento del Mondo (the official archive of the artist that represents the Estate): the scholars Laura Cherubini, Francesca Alfano Miglietti and Andrea Viliani, as well as an unpublished interview with Mauri by Hans Ulrich Obrist and testimonials from other authors.
The catalogue includes all of Fabio Mauri’s works that have been found to date in public and private collections, as well as ephemeral, destroyed or lost works, for which it has been possible to reconstruct a comprehensive record based on photographs and documents from the artist’s studio or found in libraries, collections, and public and private archives. Also included are all those other materials such as diaries, notes, architectural installation models, drafts of essays and lectures which – although not strictly belonging to the visual and performing arts – are considered significant for understanding the breadth of the artist’s work.
Exhibitions
In addition to the publication of the Fabio Mauri. Catalogue Raisonné, the artist’s centenary in 2026 will be marked with several exhibitions, including one at the Milan Triennale (“Fabio Mauri. De Oppressione”, 2nd December 2025 – 15 February 2026, curated by Ilaria Bernardi), a retrospective exhibition at the MAMbo, Bologna curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in early 2027, as well as another also curated by Christov-Bakargiev planned at MUDAM Luxembourg in late Spring 2027.
A series of talks and events to launch the Fabio Mauri. Catalogue Raisonné is planned from December 2025 through 2026, starting with a presentation of the catalogue by Christov-Bakargiev on 10 December 2025 at Milan Triennale during the Mauri exhibition there.
https://www.fabiomauri.com/en/catalogo
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