Untitled (Diptych)
Artist: Mimmo Paladino (Italian, born 1948)
Date: 1986
Dimensions:
(Upper panel) H: 58 7/8 in. (149.5 cm); W: 78 5/8 in. (199.7 cm);
(Lower panel) H: 58 7/8 in. (149.5 cm); W: 78 5/8 in. (199.7 cm);
Installed Height between panels: 4 in. (10.2 cm)
Medium: Mixed media on wood.
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1987.225A-B
Label Text:"Even when it sometimes seems so, my pictures do not tell stories; they contain no explanations, only allusions…."
Mimmo Paladino’s images often evoke mysterious themes of ritual, sacrifice, and the world of the dead. The black-robed figure in the center of the lower panel wears a white mask, simultaneously suggesting ancient Greek tragic drama, early Christian imagery, African tribal rituals, and early 20th-century Cubism. The figure is flanked by skull-like heads and a fish clasped in disembodied hands within an upturned chalice shape on an altar or pedestal. The open umbrella shape in the upper panel seems to double as a cave or a tomb. Another masked face plus two additional enigmatic figures are inside/beneath it.
Born in a small town in southern Italy, Paladino brings to his art a sense of the layers of past civilizations, with their deities and myths. The physical scale of this two-paneled painting, its simplified forms, and somber colors on gold leaf all work to dramatize his exploration of memory, the past, and the metaphysical realm.
Mimmo Paladino’s images often evoke mysterious themes of ritual, sacrifice, and the world of the dead. The black-robed figure in the center of the lower panel wears a white mask, simultaneously suggesting ancient Greek tragic drama, early Christian imagery, African tribal rituals, and early 20th-century Cubism. The figure is flanked by skull-like heads and a fish clasped in disembodied hands within an upturned chalice shape on an altar or pedestal. The open umbrella shape in the upper panel seems to double as a cave or a tomb. Another masked face plus two additional enigmatic figures are inside/beneath it.
Born in a small town in southern Italy, Paladino brings to his art a sense of the layers of past civilizations, with their deities and myths. The physical scale of this two-paneled painting, its simplified forms, and somber colors on gold leaf all work to dramatize his exploration of memory, the past, and the metaphysical realm.
Not on view
In Collection(s)