Muro Romano 1958

Mimmo Rotella made "Muro Romano" by tearing up paper – a process he called "décollage" – to mimic the distressed walls of Rome. I love how Rotella isn't just painting a picture, he's *doing* something, physically engaging with the material to create a new kind of image. The surface is everything here. Look at the ghostly shreds of posters clinging to that aged, grayish-blue ground. It's as if he's peeled back layers of time, revealing fragments of forgotten stories. Notice the texture, the way the paper curls and rips, creating a topography of its own. The flecks of red and brown, like rust or blood, hint at a history both beautiful and brutal. It reminds me of Kurt Schwitters' collages, but with a rawer, more urban edge. Rotella reminds us that art can be found in the everyday, in the discarded, and in the act of destruction itself.