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Lot Essay
With its surface of taut cloth bandages intersected by vivid swathes of red, Recall a Signal (1960) is a striking example of Salvatore Scarpitta’s bandeti, or bandaged works. The artist’s unique material language evolved following his 1958 move to America, where his earlier ‘wrapped’ paintings—consisting of canvases swaddled in strips of fabric—gave way to more complex and colourful structures that bridged aspects of Minimalism, Pop and Arte Povera. Here, Scarpitta’s signature bandages are woven across a wooden frame, creating a rhythmic assembly of lines and apertures. A broad, horizontal red band swells across three vertical strips of raw fabric, which reveal further bursts of red beneath. In concert with its title—perhaps referring to a signal on a racetrack—the work’s vibrant reds gesture towards the vehicles, flags and uniforms of car racing: a passion that would increasingly consume Scarpitta’s life and art. Its surface binds together destruction and creation, ablaze with the promise of hope, progress and salvation.
Scarpitta was born in Manhattan to Italian and Polish-Russian parents, and grew up in Los Angeles during the 1930s, where he was captivated by California’s blossoming car culture. In the Second World War he served as a ‘Monuments Man’, responsible for tracking down artworks that had been stolen or damaged during the conflict. Themes of restoration and regeneration would become central to his practice. Following the war, Scarpitta spent time in Italy. ‘There was an atmosphere of extraordinary energy,’ he recalled: ‘we were survivors, and the happiness and desire to live were so great that we created a new art’ (S. Scarpitta, quoted in L. Sansone, Salvatore Scarpitta: Catalogue Raisonné, Milan 2005, p. 60). Buoyed by the spirit of optimism and experimentation among his contemporaries, Scarpitta made a radical gesture. He began to rip up his painted canvases, attacking their surfaces before rearranging them on frames. He went on to refine this technique, wrapping canvases in strips of fabric that were inspired by the blankets he used to cradle his newborn daughter. Part painting, part sculpture, these works were visions of healing for a generation wounded and scarred by conflict.
On returning to America in 1958, Scarpitta took his bandeti to new heights. While connected to the innovative creations of the Italian avant-garde, they also resonated with those of his American contemporaries: Recall a Signal invites comparison with the sleek ‘specific objects’ of Minimalist Donald Judd, the car-metal sculptures of John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg’s proto-Pop ‘Combines’. The series soon began to intersect with his interest in the world of sprint car racing and other daredevil pursuits, as Scarpitta incorporated objects such as seatbelts, aeronautical straps, and harness and parachute buckles into his works. In Recall a Signal, echoes of the racetrack’s dynamic energy work in counterpoint with its evocation of historical trauma. Calling to mind Alberto Burri’s red Sacchi, as well as the slashed Tagli of Lucio Fontana, it is a surface of rupture and repair that looks forwards to the future.
Scarpitta was born in Manhattan to Italian and Polish-Russian parents, and grew up in Los Angeles during the 1930s, where he was captivated by California’s blossoming car culture. In the Second World War he served as a ‘Monuments Man’, responsible for tracking down artworks that had been stolen or damaged during the conflict. Themes of restoration and regeneration would become central to his practice. Following the war, Scarpitta spent time in Italy. ‘There was an atmosphere of extraordinary energy,’ he recalled: ‘we were survivors, and the happiness and desire to live were so great that we created a new art’ (S. Scarpitta, quoted in L. Sansone, Salvatore Scarpitta: Catalogue Raisonné, Milan 2005, p. 60). Buoyed by the spirit of optimism and experimentation among his contemporaries, Scarpitta made a radical gesture. He began to rip up his painted canvases, attacking their surfaces before rearranging them on frames. He went on to refine this technique, wrapping canvases in strips of fabric that were inspired by the blankets he used to cradle his newborn daughter. Part painting, part sculpture, these works were visions of healing for a generation wounded and scarred by conflict.
On returning to America in 1958, Scarpitta took his bandeti to new heights. While connected to the innovative creations of the Italian avant-garde, they also resonated with those of his American contemporaries: Recall a Signal invites comparison with the sleek ‘specific objects’ of Minimalist Donald Judd, the car-metal sculptures of John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg’s proto-Pop ‘Combines’. The series soon began to intersect with his interest in the world of sprint car racing and other daredevil pursuits, as Scarpitta incorporated objects such as seatbelts, aeronautical straps, and harness and parachute buckles into his works. In Recall a Signal, echoes of the racetrack’s dynamic energy work in counterpoint with its evocation of historical trauma. Calling to mind Alberto Burri’s red Sacchi, as well as the slashed Tagli of Lucio Fontana, it is a surface of rupture and repair that looks forwards to the future.