BOOK:Before or After, at the Same Time-Hauser & Wirth Publishers

The book “Before or After, at the Same Time: Rome, Milan, and Fabio Mauri, 1948–1968” is a landmark publication from Hauser & Wirth Publishers exploring post-war Italian art through the cultural lens of remarkable 20th-century thinkers and artists. Discover the fascinating narrative of Fabio Mauri, an artist, writer, producer and intellectual, alongside the history of his family, a publishing dynasty which thrived on close connections to radical Italian art, poetry, cinema, philosophy and literature. Mauri’s story becomes a starting point from which to explore Italian visual culture, its influences and the defining ideas behind it. The title refers to Mauri’s statement: “I can’t stay in step with my time. I am either before or after it, at the same time”.  The social and political aftermath of the Second World War engendered two highly energetic pockets of creativity in the cities of Rome and Milan. Uncover a tale of these two cities, with Mauri, a multi-disciplinary artist who resisted categorization, acting as the point of introduction to the artistic practices that emerged from each of these distinct cultural, economic and political scenes. The book examines and, in cases, re-examines the artistic milieu surrounding Mauri which included Carla Accardi, Franco Angeli, Enrico Baj, Alberto Burri, Alighiero Boetti, Enrico Castellani, Dadamaino, Piero Dorazio, Tano Festa, Lucio Fontana, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Gastone Novelli, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Giulio Turcato and Cy Twombly. -Efi Michalarou