Marino Marini (Pistoia, 1901 – Viareggio, 1980) was one of the best-known Italian sculptors of the modern era. He began his studies in 1917 at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Although he also painted and drew, sculpture was still his main artistic expression. In 1935 he won the Quadriennale di Roma and in 1936 Marini moved to Switzerland, where he frequently encountered sculptors Alberto Giacometti, Germaine Richier and Fritz Wotruba in Zurich and Basel. His participation in an exhibition in New York in 1950 led to meetings with artists such as Hans Arp, Max Beckmann, Alexander Calder, Lyonel Feininger and Jacques Lipchitz. In Europe, he visited the sculptor Henry Moore in London and exhibited works in Hamburg and Munich. He was invited to the Documenta I in 1955 and III in 1964 in Kassel. Marino Marini was inspired by the archaic period in Greece and by the design of Etruscan art. The motifs of female nudes, portrait busts and riders on horseback are the central themes of Marini’s work. His work became increasingly abstract over the years. His works are in all major museums and sculpture parks, as well as in many cities in public spaces around the world.
