Marini, Marino

Biography

Born in Pistoia in 1907, Marino Marini studied art in Florence. He devoted himself mainly to sculpture, and taught at the Scuola d'Arte di Villa Reale di Monza, near Milan, from 1929 to 1940.
During these years, he befriended Giorgio De Chirico, Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier on his travels through Europe, notably Paris and Zurich. Like many European artists at the time, he was in exile in the United States during the Occupation. He exhibited at MoMA in 1944, then at the Buccholz Gallery in New York in 1950. He also worked with Jean Arp and Lyonel Feininger . He won the Grand Prix for Sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. His first retrospective exhibition was held in Zurich in 1962, then in Rome in 1966, while a permanent installation of his work was set up in 1973 at Milan' sGalleria d'Arte Moderna. Finally, a museum was dedicated to him in Florence , and he was exhibited in Japan in 1978. He died in Viareggio in 1980, aged 79.
L'œarini's work features recurring themes, such as horseback riding, nudes and the world of the circus. Inspired by Antiquity, he has endeavored to offer updateds of mythological images using modern techniques. He is particularly renowned for his equestrian statues, whose style evolved throughout his life to rehis reflections on today's world, tending more and more towards an almost violent abstraction in the tortured forms of rider and horse, inspired by Marini's anxiety for the future.