Mario avati (1921-2009), merinos, black manner, 1970

Mario AVATI (1921-2009) Merinos Mezzotint print on paper Signed and dated 70 in pencil lower right (made in December 1970) Titled and marked ESSAI in pencil lower left In its neutral mat Rare trial proof for this mezzotint plate on copper measuring 217 X 218mm (image size) known in 6 states. Our trial proof is one of the rare 7 prints of the 5th state annotated "Essai". It is referenced in the artist's Catalogue raisonné at n°429 (p.74, Mario Avati 1968-1975) Image dimensions: 21.7 X 21.8cm Sheet dimensions: 46 X 36cm Total dimensions with mat: 50 X 40cm Mario Avati is a French painter and engraver born on May 27, 1921 in Monaco and died in Paris on February 26, 2009, active in Paris. After studying at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and as a student of Édouard Goerg at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Mario Avati practiced, from 1947, all engraving techniques. At the end of the 1950s, he turned, almost exclusively, to mezzotint, first in black, then from 1969, in color. He contributed to reviving this graphic technique as a medium for artistic expression in the 20th century, just like Yozo Hamaguchi and Kiyoshi Hasegawa. In 1980, the postal administration reproduced the engraving Letter to Mélie for Stamp Day. Mario Avati was a member of the Society of French Painters-Gravers and the National Committee of French Engraving. Classically inspired, Avati's work revolves almost exclusively around still life—fruit, flowers, staged objects—or animals, with a treatment of great geometric rigor and which does not lack, on occasion, a touch of humor and wit that we find even in the title.