Marina Apollonio Italian, b. 1940

Daughter of the well-known art historian Umberto Apollonio, from a young age Marina (b. 1940 Trieste, Italy) followed the precepts of Arte Programmata. She exhibited for the first time in 1965 together with Alviani, Biasi, Colombo, Dadamaino, Mari and Scheggi. Her Dinamica circolare series dates from 1964. The artist, who was part of Gruppo Enne, took part in the fourth edition of New Tendencies in Zagreb. Critics and international institutions unanimously recognised the theoretical implication of these works.

In most of her works the viewer's eye rotates a circular plane painted with two alternating colours (most often black and white or red and blue). This movement causes an extreme optical and perspectival effect of concentric concave and convex circles. The eye’s natural tendency to be drawn “towards the simplest configuration permitted by the sense of vision”, in the words of Rudolph Arnheim, is here overturned.

The artist worked extensively both in Italy and abroad until the 1980s, at which point she decided to devote herself entirely to study and research. 

Marina Apollonio lives and works in Padua, Italy.