Collection: Aldo Mondino

(Turin 1938 - Turin 2005)

Aldo Mondino was one of the most ironic, eclectic, and subtly cultured protagonists of the second half of 20th century Italy. He matured during the years when Pop Art and Arte Povera were redefining the relationship between art and matter, taking the critical lesson and transforming it into something unmistakably personal. Famous are his fake mosaics of chocolates – surfaces that from afar seem like precious Byzantine decorations and up close reveal themselves to be pralines – and the seemingly plastered walls that are discovered to be made of sugar: material illusions that elegantly and humorously dismantle the solemnity of painting and ornament.
His original graphic production faithfully reflects this irreverent spirit, becoming a privileged territory for the experimentation of visual puns, word games, and surreal and dreamlike juxtapositions. Through lithographs and screen prints with vibrant color applications, Mondino translated his famous cycles into limited editions, first among them the Dervishes, maintaining the freshness and conceptual irony that characterized him. The invitation to the Venice Biennale in 1993, with an entire room dedicated to him by the critic Achille Bonito Oliva and the presentation of his Turcates accompanied by real spinning dervishes, marked his clear and definitive consolidation in the international scene.