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THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ITALIAN COLLECTOR Several of the lots in The Italian Sale form part of a collection carefully gathered over the past half a century that showcases many of the developments of Italian art in the Post-War period. The artists represented range from Burri and Fontana to Melotti and Paladino, from paintings to sculptures, from the abstract to the figurative. And in so doing, they touch upon many of the greatest names in Italian art of the past sixty years. It is particularly interesting to note that the collectors have stayed abreast of many of the artistic developments, cutting edge movements and avant garde ideas that have characterised Italian art over the last several decades, meaning that the works included range from those executed not long after the end of the Second World War to those created within recent memory by contemporary artists. The decades since the end of the War have been a time of constant artistic innovation and revolution. From the moment Fontana pierced a canvas and Burri stitched another, the Italians have been at the forefront of exciting developments in the understanding of art, of its role in society, of its ability to encapsulate the world, sometimes for the sake of beauty, sometimes for the sake of our betterment. This was all the more vigorous a battle in Italy, a country steeped in a millennia-old artistic tradition. The art of previous generations, previous eras, previous civilisations, had accumulated and accumulated, leaving little space for the modern artist to manoeuvre or to breathe. It came, then, as a breath of fresh air when Fontana and his contemporaries found a Gordian Knot solution to reconciling themselves with this overbearing heritage: the avoidance of the figurative. It is no coincidence that many of the works comprising this collection are wholly abstract, be they by Fontana, Castellani, Burri or others. With this simple decision, artists managed to shrug off the cumbersome legacy of Italian art and to present the viewer with something that appeared appropriate in an age of science, space travel and computers, something that more authentically encapsulated the real world, the current existence. Thus there is a strong materiality evident in many of the works in this collection, especially Burri's Nero con punti rossi, which shows deliberate traces of the artist's movements, anchoring the work in our world, in its own existence, an aspect that is reinforced by the sensuous variety of coarse materials used. This is not a microcosm of our world, it is not a representation of some corner of our reality: instead, it is a corner of reality. This desire to convey and capture aspects of reality in art has resulted in the presence of a more overtly figurative thread that runs through the same collection. Spilling over from the surface of Boetti's Aerei, many planes jostle for airspace, bringing a playful disorder to this world of science and mechanical locomotion. Likewise, there is a proto-Pop - and crucially anti-Pop - figuration in Schifano's Coca-Cola, which takes the iconic logo of the American soft drinks giant and uses it as a motif in itself. This work recalls Rotella's déchirages - it is a torn corner of urban and consumer existence, ironised and politicised. As well as these pictures, several sculptural works reveal the collectors' interest in a visual lyricism: those of Fausto Melotti and of Arnaldo Pomodoro. Both artists were influenced by Klee, and as such their work hovers between the realms of figuration and abstraction. There is a poetry, often playful, in the sculptures and assemblages of both artists that adds an extra dimension to this exciting grouping of objects. THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ITALIAN COLLECTOR

Arnaldo Pomodoro (b. 1926)

Sfera

Details

Arnaldo Pomodoro (b. 1926)
Sfera
incised with signature, number and date 'Arnaldo Pomodoro 1985 6/6' (on the base)
bronze with gold patina
13¼ x 11 7/8 x 11 7/8in. (33.5 x 30 x 30cm.)
Executed in 1985, this work is number six from an edition of six plus one artist proof

Provenance

Studio Marconi, Milan.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2000.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and is registered in the Archivio Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan, under no. 522.

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