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Lot Essay
Composizione di Giocolieri ('Composition of Jugglers') shows Marino Marini's favourite theme, horse and rider. However, the duality of the usual union is disrupted by the presence of two other people. Despite the lack of bright colours and levity, it becomes apparent to the viewer that they are entertainers of some kind. The circus was a recurrent motif in Marini's painting. Like other artists, he used it to explore the world of illusion, of false show. In art, this exploration of the nature of mimesis is more pertinent, as the work of art itself is a representation. However, Marini manipulates the image of the horse and entertainers to reveal their deceit. The humour of spectacle has been undermined by Marini's depiction of the forced union of Man and Horse. This is not a magnificent celebration of horse and rider, but instead a travesty. The image captures Marini's profound anxiety in the modern world - Marini lived through two world wars and well remembered the pure destructive force of each. The Second World War in particular imbued Marini's works with a dark tension. Composizione di Giocolieri is a perfect example of this, with the dark comic figures ushering in the grim spectacle of Man's fall from grace.
Ever since his visit to the United States of America in 1950, Marini's art gained a new confidence and sense of space. His return to painting became characterised by the use of increasingly expansive canvases, reflecting an American sense of scale. Meanwhile, exposure to his American contemporaries gave him a new mandate for Expressionism. Composizione di Giocolieri, painted ten years later, still shows the intense repercussions this visit had on Marini. The fierce, energetic application of the paint and the deliberate drip effects tell of the artist's intense activity in creating this brooding work. Despite the tension in Composizione di Giocolieri, focussed on the dark bodies, the palette is restrained- Marini has remained true to his roots. He said of himself, 'I am an Etruscan' (Marini, quoted in Giorgio and Guido Guastalla ed., Marino Marini: Dipinti inediti 1950-1965, intr. Guido Guastalla, Livorno, 1979, p.7). Nowhere is this more evident than in the earth colours of Composizione di Giocolieri. The colours hail from the ancient paintings of Marini's Etruscan forebears. Pistoia, his hometown, is a great centre of Etruscan heritage, surrounded by the relics of their bygone domination. Amongst these relics were the tomb paintings, similar in style to those of the Greeks and Romans yet more lively and less restrained. Composizione di Giocolieri mixes Marini's cultural heritage with expressionism's artistic potential, portraying the artist's profound unease at modernity.
Ever since his visit to the United States of America in 1950, Marini's art gained a new confidence and sense of space. His return to painting became characterised by the use of increasingly expansive canvases, reflecting an American sense of scale. Meanwhile, exposure to his American contemporaries gave him a new mandate for Expressionism. Composizione di Giocolieri, painted ten years later, still shows the intense repercussions this visit had on Marini. The fierce, energetic application of the paint and the deliberate drip effects tell of the artist's intense activity in creating this brooding work. Despite the tension in Composizione di Giocolieri, focussed on the dark bodies, the palette is restrained- Marini has remained true to his roots. He said of himself, 'I am an Etruscan' (Marini, quoted in Giorgio and Guido Guastalla ed., Marino Marini: Dipinti inediti 1950-1965, intr. Guido Guastalla, Livorno, 1979, p.7). Nowhere is this more evident than in the earth colours of Composizione di Giocolieri. The colours hail from the ancient paintings of Marini's Etruscan forebears. Pistoia, his hometown, is a great centre of Etruscan heritage, surrounded by the relics of their bygone domination. Amongst these relics were the tomb paintings, similar in style to those of the Greeks and Romans yet more lively and less restrained. Composizione di Giocolieri mixes Marini's cultural heritage with expressionism's artistic potential, portraying the artist's profound unease at modernity.