Senza titolo, study under way

oil on panel
150 × 200 cm
Autenticated artwork

(published in Catalogue Raisonné vol. 1 p. 673)

The Tappeti Stesi transform the room into a spectacular Moroccan souk. They represent one of Mondino’s best-known cycles of painting-objects, begun in the 1980s and taken forward until the end of the following decade.
Travels in the Orient were always a major source of inspiration for the artist, both for subjects and for experimentation with new materials. In a bazaar in Tangier, on the ground he finds a piece of Eraclit – an industrial construction material – which with his “myopic eyes” he mistakes for an old carpet. As often happened, precisely his shortcomings in terms of sight, which he cherishes because they slightly alter his perception of reality, lead to the astonishing idea of painting carpets on simple chipboard.
As in a trompe-l'œil Mondino changes the way of seeing things and their function. Thus by using this material he conveys his vision of reality in which the image is multiple, paradoxical, deceptive. The pattern of the rugged, raw material becomes an amazing simulation of a noble oriental carpet.
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