Mechanical Woman, 1927

Details

TATO (GUGLIELMO SANSONI) (1896–1974)
Mechanical Woman, 1927
gelatin silver print on carte postale
signed in pencil (verso)
image/sheet: 5 ½ x 3 ½ in. (14 x 8.9 cm.)

Provenance

Directly from the artist to a Private Collection;
Christie's, New York, October 4, 2001, lot 225;
acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

Giovanni Lista, Futurismo e Fotografia, Multhipla, Milano,1979, p. 225.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The artist Guglielmo Sansoni adopted the name Tato in 1920 and soon became one of the leading figures of the post-World War I wave of Italian Futurism. After meeting Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, he played a central role in shaping Futurist visual culture, co-authoring the 1930 Futurist Manifesto of Photography and helping to define Futurism’s photographic ambitions. His wide-ranging practice encompassed painting, graphic design, sculpture, ceramics, and photography. His photographic work embraced experimentation with photomontage, unusual perspectives, and the transformation of everyday objects into anthropomorphic forms. In both Il Perfetto Borghese (The Perfect Bourgeois) (lot 57), and Mechanical Woman (lot 35), Tato combines humor and Surrealist-inflected invention, establishing himself as a distinctive voice within avant-garde photography in Italy.

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