Mino Maccari biography

Mino Maccari was an Italian painter, engraver, and writer. A versatile and influential figure in the Italian artistic and literary scene, he was born in Siena in 1898, into a small bourgeois family from Siena. From a young age, he showed a lively intelligence and a penchant for drawing, favoring the use of charcoal. However, at the insistence of his father, a literature professor, he pursued traditional studies, graduating in law in 1920. During his university years, Mino Maccari stood out for his rebellious and interventionist spirit, participating as an artillery officer in the First World War.
At the end of the conflict, he resumed his studies in Siena and began working as a trainee at the law office of lawyer Dini in Colle di Val d'Elsa. In his free time from work, however, Mino Maccari devoted himself to his true passion: painting. His restless and polemical spirit reflected the equally tumultuous period of Italian history, the post-war era. Mino Maccari distinguished himself both for his participation in social clashes and as a prominent figure during the March on Rome in 1922.
In 1924, he was commissioned by Angiolo Bencini to oversee the printing of the magazine Il Selvaggio, a fascist, revolutionary, and anti-bourgeois newspaper, where he published his first engravings. In 1926, he definitively abandoned the legal profession to take over the direction of Il Selvaggio, which he held until 1942. Il Selvaggio initially promoted an uncompromising fascism aimed at overthrowing the old bourgeois state. However, when Mino Maccari realized Mussolini's intention to promote the normalization of fascism, the magazine changed course, focusing more on cultural grounds. Marking this transition, Maccari wrote an article titled Farewell to the Past, outlining the new direction of Il Selvaggio: a commitment to artwork, satire, and political laughter, following a popular and seemingly mocking tradition, but in reality subtly cultured.
Alongside directing the newspaper, Mino Maccari continued to devote himself to his artistic career. He participated in several national exhibitions between 1927 and 1930, establishing himself as a painter appreciated by the general public. In the following years, his collaborations extended to other important Italian magazines such as La Stampa, Quadrivio, Italia Letteraria, and Omnibus.
In the post-war period, he continued to achieve success and recognition for his artwork, rich with decisive brushstrokes, vibrant chromatic accents, and a lively graphic style. His artistic production is vast and varied, including drawings, watercolors, tempera, and collaborations with prestigious publishing houses. In 1963 he won the Feltrinelli Prize for Painting and, ten years later, he was the first to receive the Political Satire Prize of Forte dei Marmi.
Despite his success, Mino Maccari dies quietly and without fanfare in Rome in 1989, at the age of 90. His life and his artwork remain a remarkable example of an artist who went against the tide, experimenting and innovating through various forms of artistic expression. His works continue to be appreciated for their liveliness and their ability to capture, with a documentary flair, the various aspects of Italian reality.