After the London record recorded by the futurist Boccioni of 1912 (sold for over €10 million) in Milan, by the same artist, a Head of a Child from 1911 will be up for auction, formerly from the famous Ruberl collection in Frankfurt, estimated at €200.000-300.000.
Among the highlights of the auction, another ten iconic works from Boccioni's private collection, including Bendato di Scarpitta already on display in New York at Leo Castelli's. It is a work from 1960 that Scarpitta exhibits at the second solo show at Castelli in New York, with large intertwined overlapping bands that form dynamic lines of force.
It is a work that translates energy and balance into the color and strength of the composition. The work at auction has a catalog estimate of €350.000-450.000.
"With the sculptural strength of its crimson bands" comment Beatrice Botta and Marta Giani, responsible for the auction "soaked in sand and resin, the work by Salvatore Scarpitta at auction is part of the pioneering Bende series which the artist began to devote himself to Rome starting from 1957. In an absolutely innovative and radical re-appropriation of the medium, the canvas itself becomes the subject of his works”.
The collection also includes a poetic sculpture by Melotti (Hotel Dieu, 1967) exhibited on the occasion of the famous 1976 exhibition "Fausto Melotti" in Parma, Sala della Pilotta, (est. €250.000-350.000); the sculpture is dated 1967, the year following the critical acclaim for the work presented at the 1966 Venice Biennale. “Hotel Dieu” combines technique and means, from drawing (with threads) to design (in typography) so that it seems almost reductive to label it as "sculpture". It is a work, in fact, halfway between Melotti's little theaters and tableau compositions that draw on his large-scale works. Fausto Melotti was awarded the Golden Lion in memory in 1986 and this marked the beginning of a wide international recognition.
Furthermore, in the catalogue, an oil on canvas from 1964 by Lucio Fontana – an orange cut – est. €700.000 – 1.000.000. Formerly from the Turin News Gallery, on the back it bears the inscription referring to the French critic Michel Tapié. Fontana and Tapié met in Turin during an event at the Center of Aesthetic Research, founded by the same critic. And as Ezio Gribaudo recalls in American Journey of 1961: "Tapié was an occult persuader, a Nietzschean character, very charming, a great dandy, he had an eagle face that reminded me of our architect Mollino". The friendship between Fontana and Tapié began a season marked by solo exhibitions between Turin and Paris.
Up for auction by the same artist is the four red denominations of 1967 estimated at €1.000.000-1.500.000 (image on the cover) and the gold “Concetto Spaziale” of 1963-64 (est. €350.000-450.000).
Of the numerous and interesting ceramics by Fontana at the auction – in the wake of the record for “Feminine Figura”, portrait of Teresita, from London (sold for £1,809,000) – we mention, “Seated Female Figura”, glazed terracotta from 1937, estimated at €30.000- 40.000 (height 34 cm) which is included in the Milanese catalogue; this is followed by the beautiful horizontal terracotta of 1956, “Concetto Spaziale”, formerly from a private collection in Como and valued at €150.000-200.000.
The white Surface of 1985 by Enrico Castellani (est. €180.000-250.000) comes from an important Italian private collection and a silver Surface estimated at €300.000-400.000 comes from the collection of Anna Fendi.
Another glazed terracotta offered at auction is the "Untitled" estimated (€55.000-70.000) made by Leoncillo in 1960. We recall the recent world record of the artist last November in Milan for the magnificent polychrome terracotta "Untitled (Woman with child)” sold for €218,750.
Arte Povera is represented in this sale by a mirror painting by Michelangelo Pistoletto dated 1982, “Yellow balloon with stool. The work is part of that corpus of serigraphs that best express Pistoletto's artistic evolution, from painting to photography, from the brush to the mechanical technique of mass production.
With the conception of the mirrored surface, Pistoletto has opened the painting to the passage of time, to the recording of everything that passes and passes.
Pistoletto has opened a mirror-door, where images become part of life as it is.
The mirror painting from 1982 carries a valuation in the catalog between €400.000 and 600.000.
The April sale also includes a work by Giulio Paolini (Una Visione, 1973, est. €60.000-80.000) and two Boetti tapestries from 1988 estimated at €280.000-350.000 (each).
Among the figurative works, a small still life from 1952 "Flowers" by Giorgio Morandi conserved in the same collection since 1968 (est. €200.000-250.000).
Even if the theme of flowers may seem less frequent in Morandi's art, it actually reveals itself as the most intimate, almost secret one of his entire poetics, and starting from the XNUMXs the paintings of flowers become more frequent in Morandi's work. artist.
This is followed by an oil on canvas from 1957 by Renato Guttuso, formerly from the New York Aca Heller Gallery and now in a private collection: "La Discussione", estimated at €100.000-150.000.
The painting in question is related to a very similar work in the Tate Gallery in London.
GAM Torino recently inaugurated an exhibition dedicated to the artist “Renato Guttuso. Revolutionary art on the fiftieth anniversary of '68”.
By the same artist, "Still life with candle" from 1947 is present in the auction, which carries a catalog estimate of €60.000-80.000.
From the second half of the 50s, two masterpieces by Dorazio from an important European private collection, “Un bel niente”, 1958, already exhibited in 1959 in London at the New Vision Center Gallery (est. €100.000-150.000) and “Eastern Spleen”, 1959, on show in Dusserldorf at the Kunstverein in 1961 (est. €120.000-180.000).
Zinc white for Alberto Burri's Bianco from 1960, already donated in the same year by the artist to the well-known German art historian and curator Paul Wember (est. €200.000-300.000).
Palazzo Reale in Milan in 1992 exhibited "Oltremare", 1969, a valuable square canvas (120×130 cm) by Afro, which comes from an important Italian private collection. The estimate reported in the catalog is €180.000-250.000.
Among the foreign artists we mention, “Gris Brun Noir Rouge” by Serge Poliakoff from 1956, (est. €150.000-300.000), “Fines vibrations en blue et noir” by Jesus Rafael Soto from 1974 (est. €180.000-250.000) and Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1985 mixed media “The Pont Neuf wrapped (Project for Paris)”, est. €60.000-80.000.
