This retrospective of paintings by Titina Maselli (1924-2005), is a long overdue tribute to an Italian artist who had a distinguished career that spanned six decades.

Coming from a highly cultured milieu, Maselli left Italy in her early 30s to live in New York and Austria, and later Paris, for long periods; maybe this is why her standing still has to be fully acknowledged in her homeland.

This show, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, focuses on paintings whose subjects are sports (soccer, boxing, cycling) and the city, and is part of the centenary celebrations of the Italian National Olympic Committee. It is on show in the Casa delle Armi at Foro Italico, a 1930s masterpiece of rationalist architect Luigi Moretti.

“Titina never went to see a football game or a boxing match,” said her younger brother, master filmmaker Francesco Maselli on the opening night.

The football players, boxers, cyclists caught in action – whose physicality has a Dionysian energy as well as the melancholy of fatigue and defeat – were often juxtaposed or superimposed over skyscrapers and night lights. All this stemmed from her fascination with speed, dynamism and a saturated colour that had among its references Boccioni and Balla, but at the same time looked forward, to the contemporary life of the metropolis with its nocturnal, darker aspects.

Jacopo Benci

Illustrations of Maselli works

Calciatori. 1966, Collection MACRO

Boxeurs. 2005, Collection Brai Maselli

Photographs by Giovanni De Angelis