Mario Avati

MARIO AVATI (France, 1921-2009).
"Le café du petit matin", 1980.
Etching, copy 13/85.
Signed, dated, justified and titled by hand.
Measurements: 28,5 x 40 cm (print); 36,5 x 48 cm (paper).

Trained at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice and at the École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts in Paris, Mario Avati began to work with multiple works in aquatints and etchings. Over the years, he specialized in the mezzotint technique (half-ink engraving), thus contributing to its renaissance. More than thirty exhibitions in Europe, the United States and Japan, five films of his work and multiple books attest to his reputation. Throughout his career, Avati has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal at the First Venice Biennale (1969) and the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1981). Today, Avati's works can be found in museums all over the world. In France he is represented in some thirty institutions, including the Chalcographie of the Louvre Museum, and abroad in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Gabinetto delle Stampe degli Uffizi in Florence, the National Library of Madrid, the Museum of Tokyo, the Johannesburg Museum of Art and in important private collections.