Emilio Vedova (1919-2006)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
Emilio Vedova (1919-2006)

Per la Spagna 1962 - n. 9 (For Spain 1962 - n. 9)

Details
Emilio Vedova (1919-2006)
Per la Spagna 1962 - n. 9 (For Spain 1962 - n. 9)
signed, titled and dated 'EMILIO VEDOVA 'PER LA SPAGNA 1962 N 9" (on the reverse)
waterpaint, charcoal, pastel and sand on canvas
57 1/8 x 57 1/8in. (145 x 145cm.)
Executed in 1962
Provenance
Galleria Annunciata, Milan.
Anon. sale, Christie's Milan, 14 May 1987, lot 126.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Special notice
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. These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.
Further details
This work is registered in the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, Venice, under no. FV121 and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Lot Essay

‘Vedova saw the spirit of revolution in even the most sensuous, luscious brushstrokes.’
– Christopher Masters

Torrential forces converge and explode in Emilio Vedova’s Per la Spagna 1962 - n. 9, 1962, which was painted as part of the artist’s celebrated cycle Per la Spagna for exhibition at the Ca’ Giustinian at the 8th Venice Biennale. Slashes and scratches of grey, ochre and white writhe and quake, and making the surface of the work a dense vortex of volatile energy. Formally, the painting recalls works by the American Abstract Expressionists, namely the black and white gestural compositions of Franz Kline. Indeed, Vedova hoped to ‘break through limits… to create a continuity of space and time’ contained within his canvases (A. García, ‘Dream and Wakefulness: Reflections on the World of Emilio Vedova’, in Emilio Vedova, exh. cat., Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento, 1996, p. 98). But despite these aesthetic affiliations, Vedova also considered his paintings to be ‘a cry for freedom at all costs’ (E. Vedova, Scontro di Situazioni lecture given on September 27, 1962). The artist’s insistence on representational form as an articulation and a response to the world’s social issues determined his painterly output. As Vedova himself explained, ‘A sort of self-defence, an extreme consciousness, contributed to make it possible for me not to be lost in such a state... My works are being built up…and these structures are the structures of my own consciousness’ (E. Vedova, Scontro di Situazioni lecture given on September 27, 1962).

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