Installation view of Compagni, compagni, 1968, 2018. Courtesy of the Mayor Gallery.
It’s been 50 years since 1968, a year marked by political unrest, violence, and protests worldwide. It’s not a stretch to think that 2018 will likely be remembered for the same qualities.
Indeed, there are many similarities between these two time periods. Just look at a show of works by Mario Schifano, on view now at the Mayor Gallery in London. Titled “Compagni, compagni, 1968” (“Comrades, comrades”), the show brings together a little-known body of work of the same name, completed by the famed Italian artist in 1968.
Inspired by emerging socialist movements across Europe, Schifano created a series of stenciled, spray-paint-on-canvas works employing Communist imagery. Each is a variation on a theme that depicts three men, hammer and sickle in hand, below the phrase “Sulla giusta soluzione delle contraddizioni in seno alla società” (a Mao Zedong quote that loosely translates to “on the right solution of contradictions within the people”).
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