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Description

This is a fantastic example of the art work that transformed the country of Italy by Mimmo Rotella, Italian (1918 - 2006). Rotella is known for his collages of movie and advertisement posters. In this piece Rotella utilizes the poster for Blue Hawaii starring Elvis Presley. It is a silkscreen with original collage created in 2004 and is signed by Rotella in pencil, lower right.

Mimmo Rotella was born in Catanzaro on the 7th of October 1918, the son of a milliner. Following high school he moved to Naples where he began art studies (in 1941 he went to Rome after having obtained a post at the Ministry of Postal and Telecommunication Services). Already recognized by criticism at the close of the 1950's as being an exponent of the "Young Roman Painting, Rotella was labeled as the 'poster ripper' or the 'painter of glued paper'. At night, armed with a penknife, he not only ripped off posters but also pieces of the metal sheeting and zinc of the mounting frames of the billboard zones of the Rome City Council. He was a member of the influential French Nouveaux Realistes group. In 1999 the Mayor of his natal city, Sergio Abramo, signed a City Council order authorizing Rotella to freely remove posters in Catanzaro and its environs.

Nothing illustrates more vividly the hectic post-war art scene than the scintillating career of the Italian experimental artist Mimmo Rotella.