Official Palettes

Official Palettes is an original drawing on paper, realized by the great Italian artist and journalist, Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 - 1989) around the 1930s.

Black China Ink (fountain pen and felt-tip pen) drawing on ivory-colored and watermarked paper . 

Excellent condition, except for imperceptible aging sings.  

With the incredible satiric and caustic touch of the illustrator of the Italian review, Il Selvaggio, this contemporray artwork, depicts a sort of optical illusion: two palettes walking on their brushes-shaped legs with some flying tubes of colors, are the personifications of two officers. This perception can also take place in reverse, you can guess firstly the two officers, identifiable by their headdresses and then the palettes, portrayed from behind. Looking at the extreme stylization of shapes and composition, you are amazed by the fluidity of the sign. 

This original Maccari’s drawing, a sketch for an illustration published on Il Selvaggio, stands out for the funny meaning and the freshness of the sign.

This unique piece could enrich your private collection with a Italian satiric touch and elegance!

Discover More About Life And Production Of Mino Maccari, Here!

Mino Maccari (Siena, 1898 – Rome, 1989)

Mino Maccari was a popular Italian painter and engraver with a caustic personality, called in 1924 by Angiolo Bencini to collaborate as illustrator for the magazine Il Selvaggio, an admittedly intransigent fascist, revolutionary and anti-bourgeois magazine. Here Maccari published his first engravings. and after he took over the direction of the Savage which he held until 1942.

In 1959, he became the director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome; in 1963, he won Antonio Feltrinelli's prize for painting and became president of the San Luca Academy in 1962. In the same year of one of the biggest Italian accademic honour, Maccari managed to obtain a personal exhibition at Gallery 63 in New York.

His production of drawings, watercolors, tempera, lithographs is exhausted, sometimes in collaboration with prestigious publishing houses (Strapaese, Il selvaggio), of satirical, political or erotic subject matters.