Water hyacinths

Mario Schifano was an Italian painter (1934–1998), best known for his Postmodern collages, combining advertising imagery, wrapping paper, and painted elements. Born in Homs, Libya, he was a painter, collagist, filmmaker, and musician, who moved to Rome following the World War II. In the early 1950s, he began painting in the Art Informel style, using thick impasto. Later, between 1959 and 1961, Schifano produced a series of paintings on wrapping paper glued to canvas using only one or two colors, producing works which were similar to French Nouveau Réalisme. The following year, in 1962, he began to use themes from advertising. That same year, he was featured in an exhibition New York, where he came into direct contact with American Pop artists, and was particularly influenced by the work of Jim Dine and Franz Kline.
In the second half of the 1960s, Schifano became interested in cinema, television, and performance. He founded the band Le Stelle with guitarist Urbano Orlandi, and designed a booklet for their album, Le ultime parole di Brandimonte. In 1968, Schifano made the film Satellite. Also during this time, Schifano began making screenprints, many of which borrowed imagery from his earlier works. 

A set of eight screenprints, was published in Rome for the 1984 Venice Biennale. Beginning in the late 1980s, he often worked with the publisher Torcular of Trezzano del Naviglio, who issued a series of catalogues of his work. 

His work often referred to popular culture or art history, featuring well-known brand logos or kitsch recurring motifs in the vein of Pop Art, including lily pads and horses.

The artist died in Rome in 1998.