Il 7 March 2014, the Contemporary Art Department of Sotheby's in New York presents the second edition of Contemporary Curated, the March auction dedicated to Contemporary Art and curated by four connoisseurs who come from the world of business, art and fashion, and who have chosen works they consider particularly significant. Their selections cross an articulated range of genres (with estimates of varying weight), ranging from Abstract Expressionism, to Pop Art, to Minimalism, up to very recent works.
In the catalogue, as far as Italian artists are concerned, lots 25 and 26 should be noted, two important and forerunner works of Salvatore Scarpitta; it's about Facetowel Print (The Traveler) e Double Halter; the latter is a work from 1961, with intense bandages rossi vermiglio was exhibited in Milan in 1964 at the Galleria dell'Ariete and has an estimate of 200,000-300,000 USD (fig. above).
Facetowel Print (The Traveler) it is dated 1959, and represents one of the pilot works of the research begun by Scarpitta in '57, the year in which the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan and the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome dedicated two historical personal paintings-sculptures made with bandages to these.
In Rome Scarpitta met Leo Castelli, with whom he organized an exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York for the following year (1959). Our work Facetowel (the traveler) it was created for that occasion and was then exhibited again by Leo Castelli in December 1982. This "revolutionary" work, which will greatly influence Italian and American artists for generations to come - has a valuation of 250,000-350,000 USD
