Mario Schifano (1934-1998)

Executed between 1979 and 1981, Untitled relates to Mario Schifano’s series of works based on the iconic Coca-Cola logo. Featuring only a fragment of the brand name, rendered with expressive painterly strokes, it demonstrates the artist’s desire to interrogate the relationship between consumerist iconography and fine art during the post-war period. Though Schifano’s collages and paintings are generally associated with the global rise of Pop Art during the 1960s, his approach differs from that of his American contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. In the aftermath of the Second World War, many European countries saw a rise in Communist party politics that reviled the spread of global marketing, viewing products such as Coca-Cola as one of the leading symbols of capitalist colonisation. Situated within this context, Schifano’s use of the logo takes on a complex socio-political dimension that works in counterpoint with its visual qualities.