"Figura con spada" by Tano Festa. 

• Lithograph
• Dimensions: 55.5 x 75.5cm 
• Print run: a.p. - Dry stamp Edizioni Graphis Arte Livorno

Festa exhibited for the first time in 1959 with Franco Angeli, Mario Schifano and Giuseppe Uncini at the gallery La Salita in Rome, which would present his first solo exhibition in 1961. The works of this period had an unusual force, and would be defined by De Chirico as “modernist chaos”.

Later, adhering to informal and gestural art, he painted monochromes and isolated objects of everyday life, especially shutters, mirrors and windows, which had fascinated him since childhood.

In 1963, following the suicide of his brother Rosario, he started painting with unprecedented rage, dipping his fingers directly into the paint. It was in this period that with Schifano he came up with the idea of reversing American Pop Art, by revisiting famous Italian artists of the past, such as Michelangelo and Leonardo, and interpreting their pieces as advertising.

In 1964 he exhibited for the first time at the Venice Biennale. The 1970s marked a difficult period in his life: addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol, he lost his creativity, and lived in poverty and isolation. The 1980s brought him back to the artistic life and saw him painting in a more figurative way.