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Christie’s Milan is getting ready to host, on 24th November, the last and most significant appointment with Modern and Contemporary Italian Art. An excellent occasion for collectors and art lovers who will be able to appreciate about 170 high-quality lots, dated from the first decade of the 20th century to the first years of the 21st century.
The star of the two sessions is Nella Foresta (In the Forest) by Alberto Savinio, a magnificent work executed in Paris in 1928-30, estimated between 450 and 650 thousand euros. The canvas belongs to the “toys” series, the most important realised in the master’s years of greatest productivity, when in Paris the group of so-called Italiens de Paris was formed and which, besides Savinio and his brother Giorgio De Chirico, included artists such as Campigli, Severini and de Pisis. In this masterpiece the mysterious and very colourful toys stand out like symbolic ruins in the lost world of our childhood in a primordial landscape, turned into stone with the monochromatic palette of gloomy dull greys. Bound to the creativity of children, they allow the symbolic regression to a dimension of uncontaminated freedom and innocence, but in particular they represent the objects of desire of children. From this point of view the toys relate to the prominence given by surrealists to the erotic dimension in a broad sense, intended as the sphere of unlimited desire, of the aspiration to satisfy one’s drives.
Coeval of the former and from the same important private Italian collection, Isola Felice (Happy Island) is an imposing work realised around 1930 by Massimo Campigli.
The oil painting, example of the artist’s best creative production, is proposed with a valuation of 300-400 thousand euros.
One of the highlights presented in Christie’s catalogue is Forze centrifughe (Centrifugal forces) by Carlo Carrà, estimated at 350-500 thousand euros. A first example of this work was destroyed during the First World War, then it was painted again by the author. It highlights the rhythmical and dynamic worries which represent the originality of the futurist proposals in the years around 1920. On the other hand, the knowledge of the most recent contributions of European avant-garde movements, in particular of Cubism, appears clear in the organization and breakdown of the image.
One of the auction’s highlights is the rare Amalassunta n.1 by Osvaldo Licini (estimate 250-350 thousand euros), a creation dated from 1949 which unites geometrical abstraction to free lyrical arabesques. The work proposed by Christie’s is part of a cycle of nine Amalassunta displayed at the Venice Biennale in 1950.
Kept in a private collection for over twenty years, the large Senza Titolo (Untitled) by Tancredi is a magnificent work executed in 1958 and estimated between 150 and 200 thousand euros. Particular element – as always in the works of the Venetian author who was appreciated and supported by Peggy Guggenheim – is the colour which explodes violently thanks to an expressionist brushstroke, an essential element of Tancredi’s best works.
Unmissable Lucio Fontana, present at auction with one of his Spatial Concepts, Concetto Spaziale. Attese, dated from 1967, estimated at 350-500 thousand euros. This work represents one of the most elegant expressions of Spatialism, the movement of which the artist was a pioneer and founder. The four cuts of this work represent Fontana’s calligraphic signature, the solution of a series of problems raised by him in the second post-war period and ingeniously solved. Arranged almost symmetrically, they respect an order which is not strictly geometrical, but visual. The result for the onlooker is a substantial balance invigorated by imperceptible variations.
Interesting also the lively Senza Titolo (Untitled) by Afro Basaldella from 1969, kept in a private collection for 19 years and now put up for auction by the auction house with an estimate between 190 and 220 thousand euros.
Back on the market after almost thirty years, La lezione di musica (The music lesson) by Gino Severini. The creation and provenance of this work, executed in 1928-29, are absolutely exceptional. The painting will be offered to the audience with an estimate of 80-120 thousand euros.
Purchased directly from the artist’s workshop and never presented at auction until now, Interno metafisico con biscotti (Metaphysical interior with biscuits) by Giorgio de Chirico, which comes from an important private Roman collection. Mysterious and ambiguous, the work “puts on scene” objects piled up in a sort of balance which is at the same time rational and inexplicable, placing at the centre of the composition the table which represents the background of two monumental biscuits. Characterised by the dazzling colours and by the neat backgrounds that are typical of the best works of the master from Volos, the canvas is valued at 90-130 thousand euros.
Work of museum quality, Superficie 382 (Surface 382) by Giuseppe Capogrossi, is estimated at 120-180 thousand euros. Kept for a long time in a private European collection, this masterpiece was executed in 1960, in one of the most intense periods of abstract experimentation which Capogrossi undertook straight after the Second World War.
One of the best abstract paintings in the catalogue is Deux Têtes by Karel Appel (estimate 120-160 thousand euros), but also Landa Invernale (Winter Moor) by Renato Birtolli (estimate 80-120 thousand euros).
Enrico Castellani takes part in the auction with two Superficie Bianca (White Surface), both painted with acrylic on extroflexed and introflexed canvas (lot 121 is estimated at 80-100 thousand euros; lot 165 at 130-180 thousand euros).
Besides the great twentieth-century artists, the catalogue includes some marvellous works by the stars of the contemporary Italian art scene. Among these particularly noteworthy is Gli occhi della pelle n.4 (The eyes of the skin n.4) by Giuseppe Penone, an author who is increasingly appreciated by collectors as proven by the recent results achieved in the Italian Sale at Christie’s London. Realised with charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas, it was executed in 2004 and is estimated at 50-70 thousand euros.
Arcadja Auctions skim here through the auction at Christie’s – Milan |
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jim conway
Monday 5 April 2010
I have a campigli, dated ‘57. would like to sell.