Pino Pascali (Bari, 19 October 1935 - Rome, 11 September 1968) was an Italian artist, sculptor, set designer and performer. He was born in Bari, Italy in 1936 and moved to Rome in 1955 to learn scene painting and set design at the Academy of Art. Pascali worked as an advertisement illustrator and designer for a number of years before his first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Galleria La Tartaruga.

Pascali showed his "fake sculptures," a series of shaped-canvases that first appear to be solid sculptures but are actually paintings that present abstract forms suggesting animals, plants and landscapes. Soon after, Pascali created his "weapon series," which is perhaps his most famous group of works. Assembled from found m...