Mario Avati (1921-2009), Merinos, Mezzotint, 1970

Mario AVATI (1921-2009)
Merino
Mezzotint print on paper
Signed and dated 70 in pencil lower right (made in December 1970)
Titled and marked ESSAI (proof) in pencil lower left
Neutral mat

Rare test proof for this mezzotint plate on copper measuring 217 x 218mm (image size) known in 6 states.
Our test proof is one of the rare 7 prints of the 5^th 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 the mat: 50 x 40cm

Mario Avati is a painter and French 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 and white, 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, on the occasion of Stamp Day, the engraving Lettre à Mélie. 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 - fruits, 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. Greatly admiring and inspired by the work of Giorgio Morandi, Mario Avati arranged and organized his engravings in a way reminiscent of the composition of the latter's paintings.

Exhibitions:
-Stop on collections. The engraved work of Mario Avati, Centre de La Gravure et de l'Image Imprimée, Belgium.
-Tribute exhibition, Galerie Sagot - Le Garrec, Paris VI

Awards:
-1957: Critics' Prize, Paris
-1969: Gold Medal at the First International Exhibition of Graphic Art in Florence
-1981: Grand Prix des Arts of the City of Paris
-1997: Engraving Prize, Portland Art Museum
-1997: Nahed Ojjeh Prize from the Academy of Fine Arts

Since 2013, the Mario Avati Engraving Prize, worth $40,000, is an engraving prize awarded annually by the Academy of Fine Arts.