Carlo Cafiero was a late 19th century Italian radical, who was initially inspired by Marx and the First International, but then fell under the sway of Bakunin. He eventually rejected both Marx and Bakunin (and was rejected by them in turn) and fused his own unique form of anarchist communism. By the 1880s, he had been involved in so many conflicting political groups and actions in Italy that he developed serious health issues, and was committed to the lunatic asylum at San Bonifazio.
Flavio Costantini (21 September 1926 - 20 May 2013) was an Italian artist, designer, and printmaker. Costantini created portraits of writers and artists for newspapers, and illustrated several novels. His early works were inspired by the novelist Franz Kafka, and by literary, utopian and—after reading Victor Serge's Memoires of a Revolutionary in the 1960's—anarchist. Costantini did a large number of illustrations for the British anarchist publisher Cienfuegos Press, which published a—sadly—out of print collection of his work entitled The Art of Anarchy.
These are screenprints from Costantini's Anarchist Series. Although offset poster editions of these images sometimes circulate, these original, 14-color prints (including metallic inks!) from 1974 are extremely rare!
These are very rare prints which were not stored in an archival manner until they came into our possession. Although they are in remarkable condition, there is some paper discoloration and foxing on the white edges of the paper of each print, as pictured below.
