On the same days that Paris pays tribute to Lucio Fontana with an important retrospective, on 27 and 28 May 2014, in Milan, numerous works representative of the work of the great Italian artist will be auctioned.
Fruit of abstract and pre-informal research by Lucio Fontana is the rare and energetic colored cement Tavoletta Graffita (Madonna) from 1934 (val. € 120.000-180.000) which precedes the collection entirely dedicated to the ceramics of the 1950s by the Milanese artist, numerous examples of beautiful quality, executed between 1955 and 1954, among which we mention a beautiful female head in glazed and reflected glazed ceramic from 34 (height 40.000 cm; val. €60.000-1952), the large Battaglia vase from 106 in glazed and reflected terracotta (cm. 40×60.000; val. €80.000-40.000) and the large Mirror, valued at €60.000-1952. The beautiful Base per Tavolo from 80.000, glazed terracotta (val. €120.000-1956), and a Madonna with Child and Putti, executed in 60.000, made up of two elements and estimated at €80.000-1, come from other collectors. One of the very first cuts by Lucio Fontana comes from a well-known private Italian collection: Concetto Spaziale, Attese (illustrated on page 1959), dated 1970, a three cuts on blue canvas that allow us to glimpse traces of preparation on a gold background inside the same . The effect of the two colors is of great depth. It was acquired by the current collector in 1998 at the Marlborough Gallery in Rome, and was exhibited in XNUMX at the Queen Sofia of Madrid. In the catalogue, the painting, which has a horizontal development (80×100 cm), shows an estimate of €300.000-400.000.
The most recent Fontana in the auction is the very green Concetto Spaziale Attese from 1967, logically entitled They are digging the garden, with illustrious passages in private collections in Lombardy, it has a catalog estimate of €500.000-700.000
The smallest Fountain (cm 18×24) in the catalog is Concetto Spazialeargento of '62, extremely rare because the artist, we recall, created only four specimens in this color (val. €300.000-400.000) (ill. on the left) . Of similar small dimensions is the Monochrome Bleu by Yves Klein from 1959, a Petit Bleu, from the Obelisk, Rome, estimated at €120.000-180.000.
1960 is the date shown on the back of the magnificent enamel Mario Schifano, (artist whose anticipatory force is increasingly underlined by the most recent critical studies) purchased by the collector who offers it for sale today by Giorgio Franchetti in the early 10s: N°130.000 estimate €180.000-1960. Enamel introduces a Piedmontese collection entirely dedicated to the Sixties: it goes from 1969 to XNUMX with works by Agostino Bonalumi (Blu¸1964; val. €60.000-80.000), Piero Dorazio (Untitled, 1963; val. €40.000-60.000), Jesus Rapahel Soto (Argentinian, 1969; val. €40.000-60.000), and of course Lucio Fontana with a single white cut from 1965, estimated at €600.000-800.000: a pure and powerful act at the same time, which would become the theme of the famous XXXIII exhibition the following year Venice Biennale designed by Fontana in collaboration with Carlo Scarpa.
The works of the "Milan Sixties" are in great demand today by collectors and will be at auction: two volumes, one white and one black (val. € 35.000-45.000 each), and an optical-dynamic object (val. € 40.000-60.000) by Dadamaino, a diptych by Turi Simeti from 1967, estimated at €70.000-80.000; a 62 Scheggi, Black (val. €50.000-60.000); and certainly two cannot be missing Castellani from the 120s: a 120×1968 cm white square from 200.000 (val. €300.000-1963) and a magnificent Blue Surface from 500.000, purchased shortly after by current collectors, estimated by experts at between €700.000-XNUMX.
Follows a white belly of Bonalumi of 1967, val. €50.000-70.000. From the same provenance, an Afro of great allure, because it was made in 1952 specifically for the XXVI Venice Biennale, val. €80.000-120.000, and a Santomaso of '59, Pietra Antica (val € 100.000-150.000), exhibited the following year in Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts) and in Amsterdam (Stedelijck Museum).
Introducing another collection of this Milanese auction, a canvas by Giorgio de Chirico, Le Due Maschere, dated 1959 (val. €120.000-180.000), followed, still from the same collection, by a canvas by Marino Marini from 1955, Architecture in Gray (val. €120,000-180,000). Among the post-war works of this same collection: Il Sole Spunta a Sinistra. Concetto Spaziale, Attesa, from 1964, by Fontana, a red cut with an estimate of €280.000-380.000 and Venus, by Michelangelo pistol, silkscreen on aluminum (33/60) estimated €40.000-60.000.
Finally, we mention three masterpieces by Poor art, a Ceroli from 1967, Giulio Paolini with Una Visione (val. €80.000-120.000) – canvas with a text by the artist in pencil mounted in the center of a larger canvas, so as to conceal a secret drawing of which only a few traces can be seen in the margins, and a Postal Work by Alighiero Boetti from 1972 (125×113 cm), a composition of stamped envelopes, all sent to Fernand Spillemaeckers, Belgian artist, critic and gallery owner, arranged according to criteria and combinatorial rules typical of the whole Postal Works series. It was exhibited in June 1972 at the famous MTL gallery in Brussels (founded in '69 by Spillemaeckers himself). Lavoro Postale, 1972, from an Italian private collection, has a catalog estimate of €200.000-300.000.
Very suggestive, The Man and His Shadow, a wooden sculpture by Mario Ceroli, 186cm tall. (man) and 230 cm tall. approx. (shadow), executed in 1967 (val. €60.000-80.000). The sculpture was purchased by the collector who now offers it for sale directly from the collection of the famous patron and collector of Contemporary Art Albert List, who together with his wife Vera contributed to the foundation of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the establishment of art centers at important US universities, such as MIT The work was exhibited in 1967 at the Bonino Gallery in New York, and in 1969 at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery – Buffalo, on the occasion of a personal exhibition dedicated to artist.
Among the works of the 2000s, Occhi della Pelle n. 4 by Penone, estimated €80,000-120,000, a work by Pier Paolo Calzolari, Lawrence Carroll with Untitled (val. €25.000-35.000) and, from a Swiss private collection, Composition n.4 by Bertozzi & Casoni, recently exhibited in Venice at Ca' Pesaro, val. € 25.000-35.000, Banksy (lot sold to Croce Rosa-Celeste Onlus) with Mosquito, dated 2003 (val. € 18.000-25.000), and the very young Andrea Mastrovito (currently exhibited at GAMeC in Bergamo) with a great work of carved paper (val. € 10.000-20.000).
Auction
