"Imperial Rome doesn’t interest me; I was searching for modern Rome, and it seemed to me that I discovered it at night."
Titina Maselli is a prominent figure in 20th-century Italian art. Favoring large formats, Maselli immerses us in night scenes on canvas, marked by a style instantly recognizable. She brilliantly captures the movement, speed, and energy that define her era. Her work, deeply influenced by the Italian avant-gardes, adds, with fervor, all the post-war vitality up to the pop years—making her an essential artist for any gallery dedicated to the history of the Avant-Gardes.
Born in Rome in 1924 into a family of artists and intellectuals, her father, a philosopher and art critic, encouraged her to paint from a young age. At 24, in 1948, she exhibited her paintings for the first time in Rome and quickly gained recognition. Italian writer Renzo Vespignani said her creations reflect “the passions of a generation still raw, but already tested by fear and despair.”
Later, Maselli painted the archetypes of her time. Of her early work, she said: “Imperial Rome doesn’t interest me; I was searching for modern Rome, and it seemed to me that I discovered it at night.” Her nocturnal cities reveal what remains of reality, often overlooked: they are traversed by a geometry of lines and urban networks where streets awaken under the vibrant glow of neon and illuminated signs. Maselli’s modernity breaks the landscape to the point of erasing nature. Her Metropolis become stages for footballers, boxers, and cyclists who cut through concrete more than they navigate it.
Maselli participated in the Venice Biennale four times and exhibited in various European cities. From 1952 to 1955, she lived in New York, where she confronted the Pop Art movement, from which she sought to distinguish herself: “These young artists want to paint the object as it is. I, on the other hand, intend to paint conflicts.” She painted the conflict between man and his environment—an environment he continually tries to outrun and surpass, in energy, speed, and strength. Later, she centered this conflict in her work by designing scenography for numerous films.
In the 1970s, she moved to Paris, where theater and opera welcomed her and made her famous. She collaborated with renowned directors such as Jean Jourdheuil, Brigitte Jaques, and especially Bernard Sobel, with whom she worked on twenty productions between 1980 and 2003, mainly designing sets and costumes: Va-et-vient and Pas moi by Samuel Beckett (1980), Le Cyclope, an opera by Betsy Jolas after Euripides (1986), Les Géants de la montagne by Luigi Pirandello (1994). In 2003, for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, she designed the sets for Stravinsky’s Renard, directed by Grüber and conducted by Pierre Boulez.
Maselli passed away on February 22, 2005, at her home in Rome. Her exhibitions and retrospectives at the Rome Quadriennale, the Salons of Young Painting and A.R.C. in Paris, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Kunstamt Kreuzberg in Berlin, and the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1972) testify to her rich creative legacy.
