Description

With Paesaggio Anemico, Mario Schifano, arguably one of Italy’s most emblematic postmodern visionaries, invites us into a contemplative, almost suspended terrain where the landscape is both stripped and saturated. This polimateric silkscreen belongs to a rarefied corpus of works in which Schifano deconstructs the very notion of the “landscape” (paesaggio) not to erase its presence, but to interrogate its meaning in the contemporary visual imagination.

The title, Paesaggio Anemico – literally “anemic landscape” – is a provocation. It elicits a poetic paradox: what happens when the vitality of nature is distilled into a mere trace, a ghost, an echo filtered through industrial media and mechanical reproduction? Through layered media (inks, pigments, industrial textures) Schifano replaces the romantic landscape with a synthetic, mediatised one. And yet, despite its supposed “anemia”, the work pulses with subversive energy.

This particular edition, Hors Commerce number 97 of 100, was never intended for public sale, reserved instead for collaborators, institutions, and those within Schifano’s inner cultural circle. It possesses a discreet rarity, a quiet prestige that separates it from the numbered commercial edition of 199. As such, it speaks not only to the aesthetic dimension of the work, but also to the collector’s intimacy with the artist’s world.

Part of Schifano’s broader interrogation of mass culture, perception, and memory, Paesaggio Anemico is less a “picture” and more an inquiry, an open question that lingers in the viewer’s eye and psyche. It challenges us to ask: What remains of nature once it’s filtered through the lens of modernity? And in that absence, can we still locate beauty, or perhaps even a new kind of truth?

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About Paesaggio Anemico series

Mario Schifano’s Paesaggio Anemico series stands as a profound exploration of the landscape genre, reimagined through the lens of mid-20th-century sensibilities. Emerging in 1963, these works mark a pivotal shift in Schifano’s oeuvre, moving from the vibrant hues of Pop Art to a more introspective and deconstructed approach to landscape painting.

The term “anemico” (anaemic) aptly captures the essence of these pieces: landscapes that are stripped of their traditional vitality, presenting instead a distilled, almost skeletal representation of nature. Schifano employs industrial enamel paints to create flat planes of color, punctuated by geometric striations and gestural marks. This technique not only challenges the viewer’s perception of the landscape but also emphasizes the materiality of the artwork itself, making the process of creation as significant as the final image.

In Paesaggio Anemico, Schifano dissects the elements of sky, cloud, and earth, reducing them to their essential forms. The use of quick-drying enamel allows for spontaneous drips and strokes, adding a layer of immediacy and rawness to the composition. These works are less about depicting a scene and more about the act of seeing and interpreting the world through the artist’s eyes.

The Paesaggio Anemico series serves as a critical commentary on the act of representation itself. By deconstructing the landscape, Schifano invites the viewer to question the conventions of art and perception. These works are not mere reflections of nature but are meditations on the very process of seeing and understanding the world around us.

In essence, Paesaggio Anemico is a testament to Schifano’s innovative spirit and his ability to transform the familiar into the extraordinary, challenging us to reconsider the landscapes we thought we knew.