Marino Marini: Graphic Work and Paintings is a landmark monograph featuring an introduction by the distinguished Italian art critic and curator Pietro Maria Bardi . This substantial volume, measuring approximately 33 centimeters in height and spanning xix, 75 pages, offers a comprehensive survey of Marini’s work beyond his celebrated sculptures .
The book is illustrated with eighty-five plates, of which ten are reproduced in vivid color, capturing the full range of Marini’s graphic art and paintings . Bardi, who was then director of the São Paulo Museum of Art and a personal friend of the artist, provides an intimate and knowledgeable introduction that explores Marini’s governing artistic obsessions: men, horses, and the powerful symbolic union of man and horse, with occasional forays into female subjects . The introduction affirms that while Marini’s thematic range may appear limited, the infinite variations he achieved within these subjects yield anything but monotonous results .
The physical presentation of the first trade edition is particularly noteworthy, featuring original black and beige pictorial cloth binding, black endpapers, and a striking red pictorial dust jacket protected by a transparent outer jacket . Many plates are reproduced at the actual size of the original works, allowing readers to appreciate the scale and detail of Marini’s draughtsmanship . A bibliography appears on page 73, providing scholarly apparatus for further study . Bardi’s introduction emphasizes that Marini, belonging to the generation of Giacometti and Henry Moore, speaks with restrained yet profound poetic accents across all media, equally accomplished as painter and draughtsman as he is sculptor . This volume remains an essential resource for understanding the complete artistic vision of one of Italy’s most important modern artists.
