Totem Mario

Mario Padovan is an Italian Postwar & Contemporary painter born in 1927. His exploration of various artistic languages and movements reflects a relentless pursuit of self-expression and a profound engagement with the global artistic landscape. In the forties, Padovan delved into figurative art, beginning his artistic odyssey. The fifties saw him embracing informal art, followed by a foray into the vibrant world of Pop Art in the sixties. The seventies witnessed his experiments with Opt Art and image-splitting techniques, showcasing a willingness to push artistic boundaries. Throughout this journey, Padovan explored diverse materials and techniques, from traditional mediums like oil and acrylics to unconventional choices like colored sand, ready-made objects, paper, wood, steel, and even cold light. These elements, when combined, enriched his artistic expression, creating a multifaceted body of work. Padovan's artistic repertoire expanded to encompass sculpture, conceptual installations, and the creation of artist books to meet his evolving creative needs. Critics aptly labeled him a "creative nomad," acknowledging his responsiveness to inner impulses that guided his artistic evolution. In the eighties, Padovan's focus shifted to the geometry of the square, a fascination that would persist for decades. His exploration of geometric forms evolved into illuminated envelopes, a theme that gained prominence in his works. A significant milestone in Padovan's career occurred in 1984 when he exhibited at the 41st Venice Biennale, following an invitation from Giorgio Di Genova and Giovanni Carandente. Subsequent exhibitions showcased his unique blend of classical art citations, mainly drawing inspiration from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. The artist's geometric interpolations and extrapolations inspired by Bernini's Fontana dei Fiumi and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel figures were exhibited in Rome, Viterbo, and Ferrara, further solidifying his reputation as an artist with a profound connection to classical art. In 2000, Padovan found inspiration in the baroque angels of Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome, infusing geometric and light elements to highlight the formal perfection of classical art. This marked a continuous dialogue with the past, a theme encapsulated by Picasso's words: "A mediocre artist imitates while a genius copies." As Padovan approaches ninety, his artistic curiosity remains undiminished. His ongoing studies delve into the coherence of numbers, the aesthetic mystery of Phidias' Golden Mean, modern graphic techniques, universal DNA, and the history of monotheistic religions. This relentless pursuit of knowledge and creativity epitomizes Padovan's "creative madness," a term he uses to describe the enduring passion that fuels his artistic exploration and innovation.

Decorating with fine art prints — whether they’re figurative prints, abstract prints or another variety — has always been a practical way of bringing a space to life as well as bringing works by an artist you love into your home.

Pursued in the 1960s and ’70s, largely by Pop artists drawn to its associations with mass production, advertising, packaging and seriality, as well as those challenging the primacy of the Abstract Expressionist brushstroke, printmaking was embraced in the 1980s by painters and conceptual artists ranging from David Salle and Elizabeth Murray to Adrian Piper and Sherrie Levine.

Printmaking is the transfer of an image from one surface to another. An artist takes a material like stone, metal, wood or wax, carves, incises, draws or otherwise marks it with an image, inks or paints it and then transfers the image to a piece of paper or other material.

Fine art prints are frequently confused with their more commercial counterparts. After all, our closest connection to the printed image is through mass-produced newspapers, magazines and books, and many people don’t realize that even though prints are editions, they start with an original image created by an artist with the intent of reproducing it in a small batch. Fine art prints are created in strictly limited editions — 20 or 30 or maybe 50 — and are always based on an image created specifically to be made into an edition.

Many people think of revered Dutch artist Rembrandt as a painter but may not know that he was a printmaker as well. His prints have been preserved in time along with the work of other celebrated printmakers such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. These fine art prints are still highly sought after by collectors.

“It’s another tool in the artist’s toolbox, just like painting or sculpture or anything else that an artist uses in the service of mark making or expressing him- or herself,” says International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) vice president Betsy Senior, of New York’s Betsy Senior Fine Art, Inc.

Because artist’s editions tend to be more affordable and available than his or her unique works, they’re more accessible and can be a great opportunity to bring a variety of colors, textures and shapes into a space.

For tight corners, select small fine art prints as opposed to the oversized bold piece you’ll hang as a focal point in the dining area. But be careful not to choose something that is too big for your space. And feel free to lean into it if need be — not every work needs picture-hanging hooks. Leaning a larger fine art print against the wall behind a bookcase can add a stylish installation-type dynamic to your living room. (Read more about how to arrange wall art here.)

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