The Mysterious Enchantment of Beauty

Frye Art Museum

photo by Jill Berarducci

Seattle, Washington

(206) 622-9250

The Mysterious Enchantment of Beauty: the Art of Carlo Maria Mariani

Compizione I, 1988-89, oil on canvas, 230 x 190 cm

This spring the Frye Art Museum celebrates Italian-born artist Carlo Maria Mariani in an exhibition of conceptual realism from April 23 through June 27, 1999.

Mariani's work has been displayed at the reputable 1990 Venice Biennale and was awarded the prestigious Antonio Feltrinelli Prize in Italy last November. Entitled The Mysterious Enchantment of Beauty, Mariani's exhibition features Greek sculptural figures painted with luminescent color that display his knowledge of European art from the Renaissance to Modernism. He considers himself a conceptual artist who uses the representational mode to present the viewer with intellectual paradoxes. Mariani comments, "I believe in the primordial needs of the human spirit for the mysterious enchantment that stems from the contemplation of beauty and harmony - something I would call the intellectual pleasure of living."

Mariani was born in Rome where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arte and lived until 1994. He now lives in New York.

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