Giorgio Morandi - The Great Wonderful: 100 Years of Italian Art New York Wednesday, May 13, 2015 | Phillips

The Great Wonderful: 100 Years of Italian Art

New York 13 May 2015 4pm

  • Provenance

    Curt Valentin Gallery, New York
    Private Collection, Beverly Hills
    Galleria Il Gabbiano, Rome

  • Catalogue Essay

    Mario Merz’s first igloo, the Giap's Igloo in 1968, was decorated with a saying attributed to the North Vietnamese military strategist General Võ Nguyên Giáp, “If the enemy masses his forces, he loses ground; if he scatters, he loses strength.” For all of Giorgio Morandi’s Natura Morta paintings this principle could be applied to the manner in which the viewer experiences and reads the spatial dynamic within his canvases. While Morandi’s painting before War World II is quintessentially the expression of calm and tranquility, after the war and all through the 1950s his objects subtly reveal a growing anxiety and the psychological burden imposed by the memories of the war. The boxes and the bottles, as in this work, seem to seek safety and protection, gathering together at the center of the canvas. And yet, the long shadows reveal the growing intensity of the thought and the uneasiness of the spirit. The objects lose the airy ground that Morandi had painted generously earlier in his career, but they manifest and imbue strength to the composition, gifting the viewer with the maturity of the artist’s gaze.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF CEIL AND MICHAEL PULITZER, SANTA BARBARA

12

Giorgio Morandi

Natura Morta

1953
oil on canvas
11 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (29.8 x 43.8 cm)
Signed "Morandi" at lower right.
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Comitato per il Catalogo Giorgio Morandi, February 15, 2001.

Estimate
$1,000,000 - 1,500,000 

Sold for $965,000

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The Great Wonderful: 100 Years of Italian Art

New York 13 May 2015 4pm