MAURO BINI was born in Florence in 1932 and  graduated in Mural Painting at the Arts Institute of  Florence and in Stage Design at the Academy of  Fine Arts, also in Florence. He also qualified for teaching the Art of Drawing in all Italian Arts High Schools, as appointed by the Arts Education Faculty. His teaching activity soon  led him in 1953 to found and ran for ten years his School of Mosaics within the prestigious and age-old SemiPrecious Stones Workshop (Opificio delle Pietre Dure) in Florence. At the same time he held teaching posts of Drawing, Technical Drawing, Drawing and Arts History, in all kinds of High Schools. He was also appointed to teach Byzantine Mosaics at the American Institute of Fine Arts Pius XI in Florence.

 His artistic career starts in 1950 with “neo-realistic” and subsequently “neo-expressionist” experiences within the Florentine group Nuova Corrente (New Wave) (early 60’s. founded by X.Bueno and B.Pecchioli). In 1965 he joined Segno Rosso (Red Mark) that already counted on G. Avanzini, N. Benelli, V. Berti, N. Filannino, A. Gallingani, F. Mosell, B. Pecchioli, L. Pini, F. Rosselli. And here he starts a profound renovation with his researches where form and contents repropose the “man-machine” dilemma under a “new representation” key. See the exhibition New Representation Painting (Pittura della Nuova Figurazione), Istituto Europeo di Storia dell’Arte  (European Institute of Arts History), Milan, 1967. Subsequently his works get rid of  all illustrative leftovers to concentrate the same theme within geometrizing symbols (see exhibitions Undici Pittori Fiorentini (Eleven Florentine Painters), Castello Svevo Barletta , 1967 and Quattro Pittori Fiorentini (Four Florentine Painters), Galleria La Soffitta, Sesto Fiorentino, 1986.

 In 1969, together with painter Bruno Pecchioli, he founds the Il Moro Arts Studio (Studio d’Arte Il Moro) which in 1970 becomes Gruppo Autogestito (Self-Managed Group), soon joined by artists  : G.Avanzini, N. Benelli, M. Daniele, P. Favi, N. Filannino, A. Gallingani, F. Gori, L. Papasogli, F. Rosselli, as well as art critic Ugo Barlozzetti. He also joins the  Nascita di una Morfologia Costruttiva (Birth of a Constructive Morphology) Manifest, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1972 and therefore his research heads to the “geometrical-constructionist” field and until nowadays he remains attached to this wave, obviously with renewed “geometric-expressionistic” tensions.

 Mauro Bini takes part to all numerous exhibition promoted by “Il Moro” group among which are to be noted: Art ‘3/ 72 in Basel; Ex Natura, Galleria “Plurima”, Udine, 1979 e Galleria “Diagramma”, Napoli, 1980; Gruppo il Moro di Firenze (Il Moro Group of Florence) Galleria “Verifica 8+1”, Venice Mestre, 1982; Una situazione fiorentina (A Florentine Situation) Centro “Magazine”, Prato, 1987; Tredici pittori per tredici Poemes inediti di Alberto Magnelli (Thirteen painter for thirteen unpublished Poemes) , Studio d’arte “Il Moro”, Firenze 1988; Mail Art Internazionale, Studio d’Arte “Il Moro”, Firenze 1989; Permanenze e continuità (Permanency and Continuity) Spedale degli Innocenti (The Poor Orphans Hospital), Provincia di Firenze (Florence Distric Authority), Culture Dept (assessorato alla cultura), Firenze 1991.

 In May, 1995, the Art Studio Il Moro closes its expository premises and Mauro Bini, with P.Paolo Castellucci, Federico Napoli e Nadia Benelli founds Il Moro – Archivio Arti Visive Firenze ricerca Il Moro, Visual Arts Archives Florence research (Il Moro – Archivio Arti Visive Firenze). He is charge of the new group also taking care of the editorial and editing of the homonymous information bulletin.

Being in charge of Il Moro Archive he organizes with P.Paolo Castellucci the Birth of a Constructive Morphology, Florence 1972, Story and Attendancies, an exhibition at the St.Lawrence Hall, National Library of Florence, Feb-Mar 1999.

 In cooperation with U.Barlozzetti and F.Borghini, Mauro Bini organizes the exhibition Documenti d’oggi dell’astrattismo a Firenze (Nowadays Documents of Abstractionism in Florence), Castello di Poppiano (Montespertoli), April 2000.

 He proposes the critic Giorgio Di Genova to write an essay on the works of thirteen abstractionists, gathered by Mauro Bini. These artists are: Mauro Bini, Nadia Benelli, Emilio Carvelli, Desireau, Paolo Favi, Natale Filannino, Piero Gensini, Fabrizio Gori, Marcello Guasti, Bruno Pecchioli, Gabriele Perugini, Franco Rosselli. The critic accepts and writes the essay under the title Per una classicità moderna- l’altra faccia del rinascimen1to (For a modern classicism – the other face of rennaissance). And this title becomes also the one of the exhibition held in Pieve di Cento (Bologna), Jan-March 2003 at the “Museum of Italian Generations of  the 20^th Century”.

Mauro Bini participates  to the travelling exhibition Omaggio a Magnelli (A Homage to Magnelli) 2004-2005 , Etrurian Museum - Murlo (Siena); Gipsoteca L. Andreotti, Pescia; - Sede Regionale Toscana, Palazzo Panciatichi, Florence;  - Museo M. Marini Pistoia;  - “Bateau Lavoir” Paris; Museo d’Arte Moderna, Cluj, Napoca, Romania.

 With critic Corrado Marsan he organizes the exhibition Per una storia del gruppo Il Moro (For a History of Il Moro Group)at the “Le Lance – Events” in Fiesole, Apr-May 2006.

 In cooperation with the Town Council of Prato, Culture Dept, he contributes to organize the adjourned exhibition Per una classicità moderna- l’altra faccia del rinascimento (For a Modern Classicism – the Other Face of Rrennaissance) at the “Antiche Stanze di S.Caterina (Ancient St. Catherine Stanze), Prato, Feb.3-26, 2007.

 He organized also a number of personal exhibitions, the most important being the ones in May, 1990, at the exhibition areas of Il Moro premises, where he could also carry out a wide anthology of his works of the 60’s as well as the ones relevant to the 70’s and 80’s (Dec.1991).

He also participated  to numerous painting contest obtaining a number of prizes. In 1956 and 1961 he was also invited to the prestigious Florentine Premio del Fiorino (the Prize of the Florin), Florence.

One of his works is owned by the Gallery of Modern Art of Florence and some of his engravings are at the Institute of Art History of the University of Pisa. Other works of Mauro Bini are also at the Museum of Contemporary Arts and of 20th Century in Monsummano Terme and at the Arts Museum of Italian Generations of 20^th Century, Pieve di Cento (Bologna), as well as in a number  of private collections.

 Critical writings and as a token of Mauro Bini’s art have been performed by Umberto Baldini, Ugo Barlozzetti, Giuse Benignetti, Gianfranco Benvenuti, Vinicio Berti, Pier Paolo Castellucci, Giovanni Colacicchi, Raffaele De Grada, Giorgio di Genova, Renzo Federici, Oscar Gallo, Silvano Giannelli, Renzo Grazzini, Angelo M. Landi, Alessandro Lazzeri, Giorgio Mandel, Elena Manzotti, Corrado Marsan, Dario Micacchi, Eugenio Miccini, Federico Napoli, Giovanni Nicosia, Mario Novi, Nicola Nuti, Gianni  Oliveti, Piero Pacini, Alessandro Parronchi, Gianni Pozzi, Aurelio Ragionieri, Lelio Salaris, Piero Santi, Piercarlo Santini, Giorgio Seassaro, Adriano Seroni, Luigi Servolini.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Eugenio Miccini, Arte Contemporanea e Discriminazione Assiologica  Contemporary Arts and Assiological Discrimination.)
Published by Fantini Editrice, Rome, 1975.

  Studio d’Arte Il Moro Studio d’Arte Il Moro (edited by ), Firenze/Ricerca – Arti Visive. Documenti ed esperienze dal dopoguerra ad oggi (Florence/Research – Visual Arts. Documents and experiences from postwar years to today), Florence, Published by Arts Studio Il Moro, 1985.

M. Bini, Un percorso artistico, opere degli anni sessanta (An Artistic Course, Works of the 60’s, exhibition catalogue), Florence, Published by Arts Studio Il Moro, Florence, 1990.

 Arts Studio Il Moro (edited by ), Il Moro/Arti Visive. Vent’anni di attività 1970/1990 (Il Moro/Visual Arts. Twenty years of Activity 1970/1990) Florence, Published by Arts Studio Il Moro, 1991.

 M. Bini, Un percorso artistico, opere dal 1969 al 1989 (an Artistic Course, Works from 1969 to 1989  exhibition catalogue), Florence, Published by Arts Studio Il Moro, 1991.

 U. Barlozzetti, P. P. Castellucci, E. Miccini, Nascita di una morfologia costruttiva Firenze 1972, “Storia e Presenze”(Birth of a Constructive Morphology, catalogue of the exhibition), Florence, Published by Il Moro Archives – Visual Arts, 1999.

 Giorgio Di Genova, “Per una classicità Moderna – l’altra faccia del rinascimento” (For a Modern Classicism – the Other Face of Rrennaissance), Bora Publishers, Bologna, 2002.