Enzo Mari
Uno, la Mela

In reference to The Apple and The Caterpillar.

Enzo Mari was an Italian designer, artist, teacher, theorist and socialist.

Le Mela is a two-colour silkscreen print, originally drawn in 1963. It is part of Mari’s Nature Series (Serie della Nature).

Being a socialist, Mari believed in ‘the possibility of equality through design’, aiming for accessible retail costs through using the principles of mass production in industrial design. Inspired by the universal nature of Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit, Mari began a rigorous process of refinement and simplification, starting with the apple.

Researching iconography and the essence of form, Mari said about his apple, ‘It mustn’t be an apple, but rather the apple. It must be the concept of apple.’