(born Homs, Libya 1934–1998 Rome) “Incidente” (diptych), on the reverse titled, signed, dated Schifano 1963, with directional arrow, enamel on paper, laid down on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate: archivio Mario Schifano, Monica Schifano, 14 November 2009, no. 01586091024

Provenance: Collection Franchetti, Rome
Collection Sprovieri, Rome
Collection Telemarket, Brescia
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibition: Lyon, Mario Schifano, Musée Saint Pierre Art Contemporain, 1985, exhibition catalogue. page 49 with ill.;
Conegliano, Schifano Opere 1957–1997, Palazzo Sarcinelli - Galleria Comunale d’Arte, 1998, exhibition catalogue. page 83 with ill.

Literature: Mario Schifano, A) I°, Opere su tela 1956–1982, Milan, page 52, ill. no. 63/001

“Shortly before (Mario Schifano) left for New York, I presented him with the catalogue of the great exhibition on Giacomo Balla that had taken place in Turin that year. In return, he offered me a drawing that humorously warned me against excessive speed when driving (he considered my driving habits reckless), for the first time adopting, in a spirit of easy “quotation”, the iteration of lines that is typical of Futurists. A car in motion, repeated sequentially with successive images, crashes against the left side of the sheet. Below, in capital letters: “Maurizio attenzione” [Maurizio, be careful]. This is the car accident theme he had formerly dealt with and that could be regarded as being derived from Warhol, although the latter reproduced very few car crashes in 1962 (...) and all the others date from 1963 onwards. Schifano’s Incidente [Car Accident] was displayed in his solo exhibition at Gallery Odisseya in April 1963, and reproduced in colour in the catalogue with a bright red that is clearly very different from Warhol’s photographic chiaroscuros.”
(from “Cronache e Coordinate di un’avventura – Preistoria della “Scuola di Piazza del Popolo” by Maurizio Calvesi)