Mario Persico, founder of Gruppo 58, dies at 92

Mario Persico (1930–2022), a key figure in Southern Italian avant-garde art, died at his home in the Vomero district of Naples. In 1955, he signed the Nuclear Art manifesto alongside Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo. Three years later, he co-founded Gruppo 58 with Guido Biasi, LUCA Luigi Castellano, Franco Palumbo, Mario Colucci, and Lucio Del Pezzo, a group that evolved from nuclear painting toward Dada and Surrealist tendencies. Persico's practice encompassed painting, sculpture, theater, and eroticism, known for dysmorphic and monstrous subjects. In the 1960s, he shifted to three-dimensional works like "Segnali" and "Oggetti ammiccanti." In 1969, his "Gru erotogaie" were displayed in Stuttgart public parks. Works such as "Sedie dell’Isteria" and "Sedie della Tortura" (1974–75) explored the artist-spectator relationship. In 1973, he collaborated with poet Edoardo Sanguineti at La Scala in Milan on "Laborintus II" and "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda," leading him to view theater as therapeutic freedom. He was an editor and layout designer for the magazine "Documento Sud" (1959–61) and later published "PATAPART" from 2001. His works are held in collections including Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and Museo del Novecento di Castel Sant’Elmo in Naples. The Museo Madre in Naples, which dedicated a solo exhibition to him in 2012, expressed condolences, as did Capodimonte, which highlighted his 1965 work "Monumento all’amore seriale."