Contemporary Artwork Cioni Carpi 1963/74 Conceptual Art Mixed Techniqu - We created Atypical Systems 1963/74

Sestante 14 1989

Color screenprint on paper. Signed in pencil lower right, numbered n. IV/XV bottom left. It is accompanied by photo authentication from the "Il borghetto" art house in Milan. The work was part of the "Sestante" series, consisting of 16 different serigraphs. In 1982 Alberto Burri created Sestante, a large cycle of seventeen cellotexes and an iron sculpture, which was exhibited from May to September of the following year in the space of the former Giudecca shipyards in Venice. The evocation of the old nautical instrument, which was used by travelers to establish the position of a given point with respect to the horizon, is a tribute to the maritime destiny of Venice. The paintings are Burri's umpteenth challenge: in their combinations the shapes and colors of the "sextant" create an inexhaustible cycle where there is not the slightest repetition. Within the same painting, or in the juxtaposition of one to the other, the kaleidoscope of shapes allows square and curvilinear structures to coexist, together with large chromatic backgrounds and dense visual patterns. In 1989 the artist proposed the cycle again as a graphic work, creating the "Sestante" series. The art historian Bruno Corà said that "in Burri's case, speaking of graphics does not mean speaking of a lesser production compared to paintings, but only of a different and parallel artistic modality, in conception and execution, in short such as to be able to be included with absolute importance in the production of the great painter, alongside all his other revolutionary innovative pronouncements". The work is presented in a frame.

Pencil on paper. Signed on the back. The drawing is registered in the Fausto Melotti Archive, with code DIS 72006. Fausto Melotti was a multifaceted and very prolific artist and it is almost impossible to link his production to a particular technique or theme, without providing only a partial view of his vision artistic. The salient features that are constant in Melotti are geometry, the study of abstraction, which leads him to use realistic but not scientifically accurate elements, and arranging the elements so that they recall a musical rhythm, a detail that refers to his training as a musician Sculptor, painter, musician, poet, he made numerous design drawings for his works. Drawing represented for him a fundamental exercise, to transfuse the original graphic trait from sheets of paper into sculptures and ceramics. The sculptures for which he is best known are made up of geometric elements made with metals (brass, iron and gold) worked into thin filaments, giving life to ethereal, weightless and almost fragile compositions. The work is presented in a frame.

The Portrait of the Queen

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom right there is an unidentified signature. The large canvas presents an interior scene, set in an eighteenth-century court: in the richly furnished room with velvet curtains, sculptures and large paintings on the walls, a queen (identified by her ermine-edged cloak) poses for the painter who is her portrait, surrounded by the court, smiling ladies and gentlemen, and a prelate, who instead seems rather dissatisfied. The work looks at the production of the painter Arturo Ricci (1854 -1919), who specialized in genre scenes set in eighteenth-century courts. The painting is presented in a frame assembled with elements from the early 1900s.

Interior scene

Oil painting on canvas. Not signed, but on the back there is a dedication "Alla signora Clelia Mazzioli, con stima Gaetano Bellei 23 gennaio 1909". The big scene, set in a popular kitchen, sees a woman reading cards to two girls, who ask for explanations by pointing to the figures that appear and seem to compare them with a text leaning on the chair. The work recalls the painting of Gaetano Bellei, due to the strong realism with which the painter painted above all scenes of daily peasant life; he is considered a master of the depiction of human affections and of human reactions and sensations. The painting has slight drops of color. It is proposed in a stylish frame.

Two Figures

India ink on paper. Signed lower right. Accompanied by authentication on photo by his wife Matilde Sironi dated September 1963 and by certificate on photo from the JA PF archive. with number 031 and data of the work. Mario Sironi dedicated himself a lot to drawing and figure study, and his production included many drawings, figure studies, sketches for subsequent paintings. All the power and expressive force of Sironi's bodies can already be seen in these drawings, whose mind, an incessant forge of ideas and projects often created on a large scale (he created numerous murals), often made use of makeshift paper supports to draw, even of small dimensions, on which he traced, in just a few centimetres, large projects, provocative ideas and poetic images. The work comes from an important Milanese private collection. It is presented in a frame.

Mixed media on paper. On the back the artist's stamp with the signature, the title (not deciphered) and the date of the work. Caccioni, an artist who was born, trained and still lives in Bologna, is one of the protagonists of a generation that has now reached a definitive linguistic maturation and occupies an important space within the contemporary artistic panorama. His research mainly uses unusual materials such as acetates, PVC and, more recently, scenic backdrops from nineteenth-century theatrical works, on which he intervenes by painting forms taken from a personal memory and from suggestions coming from different cultures and historical periods. A recurring element in Luca Caccioni's work is writing, a self-significant sign that designs the work and is capable of narrating thoughts; working by superposition, the images are constructed by addition or subtraction of color on the various supports. Work in frame.

Studio 1992

Mixed media on paper. Signed and dated lower, with title. On the back the artist's stamp with the signature, title and date of the work. Caccioni, an artist who was born, trained and still lives in Bologna, is one of the protagonists of a generation that has now reached a definitive linguistic maturation and occupies an important space within the contemporary artistic panorama. His research mainly uses unusual materials such as acetates, PVC and, more recently, scenic backdrops from nineteenth-century theatrical works, on which he intervenes by painting forms taken from a personal memory and from suggestions coming from different cultures and historical periods. A recurring element in Luca Caccioni's work is writing, a self-significant sign that designs the work and is capable of narrating thoughts; working by superposition, the images are constructed by addition or subtraction of color on the various supports. Work in frame.

Gilded bronze bas-reliefs. Signed lower right; number of specimen 25/150 bottom left. The triptych is accompanied by a certification of authenticity from the Seledi Arte Center in Milan. The titles of the three bas-reliefs are shown in the authentication: Fortune, Stallion Fight, The Couple. Francesco Messina's sculpture, so full of echoes of the classical Greco-Roman and Hellenistic heritage,"is characterized", wrote Carlo Carrà, "a simple and great style" and by an "idealistic and classical procedure"capable of give life to forms that remain as "ideal images". The three bronze panels are mounted in a single frame.

Before Dinner 1970

Oil on hardboard. Signature, date and title top right. Udo Toniato, a naive painter, is known for his works that tell the story of his homeland, the Bassa del Po, with its characters. Here he depicts three little priests who, armed with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun of the Bassa, head towards the votive chapel on the country road, observed by an amused goat, for the last prayers of the day. The work is presented in a frame.

Man with Dog, 1962

Lithograph, numbered bottom left N.138/170, signed bottom right. Pisan painter and engraver, he achieved national recognition only when he became professor of engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1948, under the chair of Giovanni Fattori. Viviani was able to transfer his personal vision of the world into his engravings, through images that drew on the life of the Pisan coast, the land he loved and where he lived, dedicating himself to his other great passion, hunting. Presented in a plexiglass frame.