AVATI Mario

Mario AVATI (born 27 May 1921 in Monaco) is a French painter and engraver.

After studying at the National School of Decorative Arts in Nice and as a pupil of Édouard Goerg at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, Mario Avati practiced all the techniques of engraving from 1947. Ten years later, it turned almost exclusively towards the black way, first in black, then, from 1969, in color. In doing so, he helped revive this graphic technique as a popular expression medium. Several of his engravings were taken over for the edition of stamps. Thus, in 1980, the postal administration reproduced, on the occasion of Stamp Day, the engraving Letter to Mélie.

Mario Avati was a member of the Société des peinteurs-graveurs français and the Comité national de la etching française. Of very classical inspiration, the work of Avati, revolves almost exclusively around the still nature — fruits, flowers, objects staged... — or animals (the butterflies for example), with a treatment of great geometric rigor, but which does not miss, on occasion, humor, to start in the title. Very admired and inspired by the work of Giorgio Morandi, Mario Avati had and organized his engravings in a way reminiscent of the composition of Morandi's paintings. In addition to the production of hundreds of prints, Mario Avati has illustrated works, especially bibliophilia.