Mario Schifano, Amore nel deserto
Created around 1985, Amore nel deserto (Love in the Desert) is a large canvas by Mario Schifano, executed in acrylic and mixed media over a silkscreen base.
Two monumental white palms emerge against an intense blue ground. A sequence of red, pink and white hearts crosses the composition, while the words Amore nel deserto become an integral part of the image.
The visual language is immediate and unmistakable. Simplified forms, vivid colour, signs and words coexist freely across the surface. In this Mario Schifano painting, the natural motif is therefore transformed into a highly personal and contemporary image.
Nature in Schifano’s painting of the 1980s
During the early 1980s, Schifano returned to painting with renewed intensity and developed several bodies of work centred on nature. In 1983–84, the Giardini and Ninfee cycles were exhibited in Milan. He also created Deserts, followed by works connected with water flowers, wheat fields and other natural motifs.
In 1984, Schifano participated in the Venice Biennale curated by Maurizio Calvesi, where he exhibited works including Chiamato K Malewič and Ore 22.15 – Maestro italiano del Novecento. During the summer of the same year, Alain Cueff curated the separate exhibition Naturale sconosciuto at the Palazzo delle Prigioni Vecchie in Venice. This period reveals Schifano’s particularly intense interest in nature and in a freer, more directly painted image.
Love in the Desert belongs to this creative climate. The palms are not treated as conventional landscape elements. Instead, they become large graphic and pictorial signs, while the hearts introduce an emotional rhythm into the composition.
Painting and silkscreen image
The work combines a silkscreen base with direct pictorial interventions in acrylic and mixed media.
This relationship between reproduced imagery and manual gesture is central to Schifano’s experimental approach. Here, however, the painted intervention dominates the surface. Colour modifies the underlying image and gives the composition its individual character.
The intense blue field creates a luminous setting for the palms and hearts. At the same time, the handwritten title becomes both language and image, reinforcing the directness of the work.
Signature and authentication
This Mario Schifano artwork is hand-signed by the artist on the front.
It is accompanied by photographic authentication issued by the Mario Schifano Foundation on 9 December 2003, Protocol No. 00697/03.
The reverse of the canvas bears the gallery owner’s handwritten signature.
