Discours d'un Ecologiste Provencal a une Bergere Celtique

Mario Avati

The title of this sumptuous color mezzotint translates to "Speech of a Provance ecologist to a Celtic Shepherdess". Avati is considered one of the modern masters of mezzotint. In a 1975 interview, Avati is quoted:

“I don’t pretend to say that objects replace people. But objects, when you question them for a long time, finally answer you. It takes years to establish this dialogue. But when objects begin to respond to you, magic begins. There is something profoundly magical in having, unexpectedly, contact with an object that you believed was immobile. You understand that the atoms that constitute life also constitute objects. Life is all that surrounds us, not just man.”

Mario Avati, painter, printmaker and book illustrator, was born to Italian parents in the Principality of Monaco on 27 May 1921. He studied at the École des Arts Decoratifs in Nice and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He began exploring the techniques of etching and aquatint in 1947 but, by 1957, he had turned exclusively to mezzotint.

Avati made over 400 prints and illustrated six deluxe editions of books with original mezzotints. He is one of the finest mezzotinters in the history of printmaking. Avati’s work was included in countless solo and group exhibitions and he was awarded the Prix de la Critique for drawing and printmaking in 1957, a Gold Medal at the First International Exhibition of Graphic Art in Florence, and the Grand Prix of Arts of the City of Paris in 1981. He was a member of the Society of French painters and engravers. His works are represented in more than 100 public collections throughout Europe and the U.S.