La porta (Accoppiamento), 1964

The cycle of works dedicated to Felice Casorati, made just after his death, has been seen as a desecrating interpretation of the great master from Turin, whereas these pieces actually express Mondino’s desire to find a key of connection between the Italian Novecento tradition and the nascent Pop Art. Mondino’s aim was to always use the same image, the Maternità con le Uova, raising it to the status of a symbol of painting, reproducing it on different surfaces. In doing this, the artist manipulates the codes of art at will, foreshadowing the poetics of the 1980s, charging the object with new connotations and altering its final destiny. This is the Mondino’s double-cross, as it was defined by Maurizio Fagiolo to underline the duplicity of the image, where play and humor have a central role. In this way, a plastic curtain and the door of a hotel room with its key become a tableau, a work of art the viewer can physically cross.