Departing from his earlier figurative works and engagement with Futurist ideals, Italian painter Osvaldo Licini (1894-1958) turned away from realism in 1940 and painted only abstract works from then on. His paintings from that fruitful decision engage in a surrealist language of precise lines, solid colors and pregnant signs; colors and signs that Licini viewed as expressions of energy, willpower, ideas and magic. This catalog of Licini's show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the most comprehensive monograph of his work, marks the 60th anniversary of his death. That same year, Licini won the National Grand Prize for Painting at the 29th Venice Biennale, where he had shown 53 works--executed between 1925 and 1958--in a room of his own, mounted by Carlo Scarpa. This catalog gathers his complete works, including those displayed in that same venue 60 years prior to this 2018 show.

The volume is dedicated to Shepard Fairey (Charleston, 1970), one of the best known urban art artists in the world. Established under the pseudonym of OBEY thanks to a successful campaign of stickers spread in a viral way, depicting the face of wrestling champion Andre The Giant, the American artist has achieved international visibility thanks to the portrait of Obama, immortalised in the iconic 2008 'Hope' poster for his presidential campaign. In these pages the artist presents 30 recent unpublished graphic works (2019), which retrace 30 years of activity through his most famous icons: many social and political themes that inspired his production, from the struggle for peace and against racial violence, the defense of human and gender dignity up to environment protection. The graphics constitute a unique and unrepeatable concept, designed specifically for the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, where they are put in dialogue with important works from the contemporary art collection of the Capitoline Superintendence, selected by the artist himself. The volume, with an intervention by Shepard Fairey and numerous critical texts, is completed by a biography and bibliographical apparatus. Text in English and Italian.