Untitled, 1957

In 1947, 31-year-old Carlo Zinelli was released from military service, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and committed to a hospital in Verona. A decade later he began drawing, developing and evolving a distinctive, graphic style championed by artist Jean Dubuffet, among others. An early work by the artist, this piece already displays the bold, graphic quality, infused with humor and fear, that permeates Zinelli's oeuvre. Drawings from this period often include small figures and objects in a series of vignettes sharing, though not always interacting on, a single page.