CONTEMPORARY ART
 

The Woodcutter 1980

Oil on glass. On the lower left are the signature and date, accompanied by the artist's symbol, the stylised figurine of a man in a wheelchair. This is a work on glass by the painter Mario Previ, who has lived and painted in a wheelchair since the age of eighteen, due to quadriplegia following a plunge into his Taro river. He said of himself: ‘The world, the passage of time, from this point of view (the wheelchair) teaches you many things. You learn to wake up every morning with a purpose, even if your body is in pain, if every gesture generates suffering and you depend on others, and giving up could be an easy solution. And instead, art, painting, together with the serenity of my world, of friends, give me incredible energy. They have saved me, giving me the strength to live'. In 1974, three years after the accident, inspired by a television programme on Yugoslavian naïve painters, in particular by the works on glass by Mijo Kovacic, Previ began painting and learning the art of glass painting as a self-taught artist, until he became known and appreciated for his paintings. In his naifs, Mario Previ recounts a reality that has almost disappeared, real stories albeit in a fairy-tale tone, revives lost traditions, glimpses of life that belonged to other generations, those of the peasant civilisation (from which he comes), but what emerges most from his visions are the ‘forë’, those that could once be heard in the ‘firossi’, the traditional evenings in the hamlets of Parma dedicated to getting together to tell anecdotes, stories and historical curiosities, often in front of the fireplace, when it was cold and snowing outside. The work is presented in the frame.

The Bonfire under the Snow, 1979

Oil on glass. At the bottom right are the signature and date, accompanied by the artist's symbol, the stylized figurine of a man in a wheelchair. It is a work on glass by the painter Mario Previ, who has lived and painted in a wheelchair since the age of eighteen, due to quadriplegia resulting from a dive into his Taro. He said of himself: "The world, the passage of time, from this point of view (the wheelchair) teach many things. You learn to wake up every morning with a purpose, even if your body is in pain, if every gesture generates suffering and depending on others and giving up could be an easy solution. And instead, art, painting, together with the serenity of my world, of friends, give me incredible energy. They saved me, giving me the strength to live". In 1974, three years after the accident, inspired by a television program on Yugoslavian naïve painters, in particular by the works on glass of Mijo Kovacic, Previ began to paint and learn the art of painting on glass as a self-taught, until he to make himself known and appreciated for his paintings. In his naifs Mario Previ tells a reality that has almost disappeared, real stories albeit in a fairy-tale tone, he revives lost traditions, slices of life that belonged to other generations, those of peasant civilization (from which he also comes), but what emerges most from his visions are the "forë", those that could once be heard in the "firossi", the traditional evenings of the hamlets of Parma dedicated to meeting to tell anecdotes, stories and historical curiosities, often in front of the fireplace fire, when outside it was cold and snowing. The work is presented in a frame.

Mixed media on paper. On the back the artist's stamp with the signature, the title (not deciphered) and the date of the work. Caccioni, an artist who was born, trained and still lives in Bologna, is one of the protagonists of a generation that has now reached a definitive linguistic maturation and occupies an important space within the contemporary artistic panorama. His research mainly uses unusual materials such as acetates, PVC and, more recently, scenic backdrops from nineteenth-century theatrical works, on which he intervenes by painting forms taken from a personal memory and from suggestions coming from different cultures and historical periods. A recurring element in Luca Caccioni's work is writing, a self-significant sign that designs the work and is capable of narrating thoughts; working by superposition, the images are constructed by addition or subtraction of color on the various supports. Work in frame.

Studio 1992

Mixed media on paper. Signed and dated lower, with title. On the back the artist's stamp with the signature, title and date of the work. Caccioni, an artist who was born, trained and still lives in Bologna, is one of the protagonists of a generation that has now reached a definitive linguistic maturation and occupies an important space within the contemporary artistic panorama. His research mainly uses unusual materials such as acetates, PVC and, more recently, scenic backdrops from nineteenth-century theatrical works, on which he intervenes by painting forms taken from a personal memory and from suggestions coming from different cultures and historical periods. A recurring element in Luca Caccioni's work is writing, a self-significant sign that designs the work and is capable of narrating thoughts; working by superposition, the images are constructed by addition or subtraction of color on the various supports. Work in frame.

Gilded bronze bas-reliefs. Signed lower right; number of specimen 25/150 bottom left. The triptych is accompanied by a certification of authenticity from the Seledi Arte Center in Milan. The titles of the three bas-reliefs are shown in the authentication: Fortune, Stallion Fight, The Couple. Francesco Messina's sculpture, so full of echoes of the classical Greco-Roman and Hellenistic heritage,"is characterized", wrote Carlo Carrà, "a simple and great style" and by an "idealistic and classical procedure"capable of give life to forms that remain as "ideal images". The three bronze panels are mounted in a single frame.

Before Dinner 1970

Oil on hardboard. Signature, date and title top right. Udo Toniato, a naive painter, is known for his works that tell the story of his homeland, the Bassa del Po, with its characters. Here he depicts three little priests who, armed with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun of the Bassa, head towards the votive chapel on the country road, observed by an amused goat, for the last prayers of the day. The work is presented in a frame.

Sestante 14 1989

Color screenprint on paper. Signed in pencil lower right, numbered n. IV/XV bottom left. It is accompanied by photo authentication from the "Il borghetto" art house in Milan. The work was part of the "Sestante" series, consisting of 16 different serigraphs. In 1982 Alberto Burri created Sestante, a large cycle of seventeen cellotexes and an iron sculpture, which was exhibited from May to September of the following year in the space of the former Giudecca shipyards in Venice. The evocation of the old nautical instrument, which was used by travelers to establish the position of a given point with respect to the horizon, is a tribute to the maritime destiny of Venice. The paintings are Burri's umpteenth challenge: in their combinations the shapes and colors of the "sextant" create an inexhaustible cycle where there is not the slightest repetition. Within the same painting, or in the juxtaposition of one to the other, the kaleidoscope of shapes allows square and curvilinear structures to coexist, together with large chromatic backgrounds and dense visual patterns. In 1989 the artist proposed the cycle again as a graphic work, creating the "Sestante" series. The art historian Bruno Corà said that "in Burri's case, speaking of graphics does not mean speaking of a lesser production compared to paintings, but only of a different and parallel artistic modality, in conception and execution, in short such as to be able to be included with absolute importance in the production of the great painter, alongside all his other revolutionary innovative pronouncements". The work is presented in a frame.

Untitled, 1961

Mixed media on paper and cardboard. Signed and dated '61 top right. The composition - because such are the works of the artist originally from Bari but lived in Paris - presents some objects from the world of toys (the two plastic bottles) assembled together with nails, painted tape, waxed paper, trimmings, on a based on paper and cardboard, to create an imaginative landscape, a sort of scenography for a childish world. The work is presented in a frame..

Oil on plywood

Charles Moody (1979), oil on plywood. Signed on the back. The work was exhibited at the solo exhibition "Borderland" at the Gallery 8 in Milan Corso Venezia, as evidenced by the paper to the back lable. Charles Moody graduated in 2003 at the Art Institute of Boston and, after three years in Milan, chooses to live in New York. In his art the focus at trial (conceptual art, process art) rather than to the image content and it is in this scrap that painting is at its best. An art that was created by the approval of television images (almost never films) and in particular from popular soap operas. Moody's work goes beyond the mass media image by customizing the selection for special images that, in his view, offer a potential narrative; are images of transition, moments of transition from one scene to the next. The artist uses a manual oil painting to reproduce the low quality of the tv picture extolling the "blurring" of blur. We are facing a loss of spatial dimension, in a temporality confused-diffuse-intangible which is difficult to recognize the boundaries ("Borderland"). In these perceptual distortions, in which time dilates expands, each painting represents a "indiscernibilità" in which the recognition of the object that takes second place. The time of Moody is neither Chronicle nor history but suspension. (From "Charles Moody, Borderland", curated by Gianni Romano, exhibition catalogue, CorsoVeneziaOtto, November-December 2009)

Untitled, 1998

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Riccardo Licata, an eclectic artist who dedicated himself to painting, engraving, mosaic, sculpture and also scenography, has gone through various phases of artistic research and has been able to combine abstraction with a profound search for spatial rhythms marked by signs . His graphic-pictorial writing, inspired by music, has given a unique identity to his works, which stand out for the skilful use of symbols and graphic features. The work is presented in a frame.

Female Figures

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. Mino Maccari's artistic production is mainly aimed at social and political satire, expressed above all through drawing; moreover, he never positioned himself as a judge of Italian customs, but rather as an amusing and amused chronicler of the vices and weaknesses of society. In his pictorial production, although he does not deviate excessively from the themes of his drawings, he accentuates the fantastic aspect more: with rapid and decisive brushstrokes and bright, often violent colours, he characterizes almost unreal or rather caricatural figures. The work is presented in a frame.

Glimpse of the Country with Figures

Oil on wooden panel. Signed lower left. Vittore Antonio Cargnel, father of Lucio Cargnel, was mainly a landscape painter, author in particular of evocative views of Treviso and exciting glimpses of Friuli, his homeland. He is considered the spokesperson of intimate landscape painting, for his ability to freeze landscapes in the immediacy of atmospheric changes, often on small panels, so as not to miss the moment of a particular luministic condition responsible for the impression aroused in the artist. In this part of the town, the luminous contrast stands out between the square still dominated by the gray rain, highlighted by the umbrellas of passers-by - figures that are only indistinct spots, neutral elements of the landscape - and the light which, cutting through the clouds, illuminates and colours. the top of the buildings. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Saint George 1992

Oil on panel. Signed bottom right. On the back, with Cyrillic characters, there is the title, the date and the location, Bergamo. The Lithuanian artist, who currently lives and works between Moscow, Italy and the United Kingdom, is considered one of the most important contemporary Russian artists. In his large production there are landscapes, still lifes, many portraits of famous people and his surreal compositions, an expression of his peculiar "dream vision" of reality. Even in this table, albeit in the style of traditional icons, the depiction of the famous St. George is proposed in a surreal key that reminds of De Chirico, in which the dragon is replaced by a goose, the Saint's head is an egg, in the outlines there are figures of sorceresses... a clearly unorthodox interpretation! The panel has a vertical slit. The piece is presented in a frame.

Plato and Aristotle

Mixed media on canvas. Signature, title, date and dedication on the reverse. Paolo Baratella, a recently deceased artist from Ferrara, developed his art by composing vast pictorial cycles inspired by contemporary subjects; we therefore have series of works by him gathered under significant titles. From the mid-1980s and into the 2000s, his scenographic apparatuses became more enriched with cultural, pictorial and literal iconographic references. In particular, Baratella pays greater attention to the iconography of art, philosophy and history. In this work the artist presents the portraits of the two great Greek philosophers (taken from their traditional classical depictions) and shades them in a frame of pink-blue colours. The two individual canvases are placed side by side inside a worked wooden frame, on whose two horizontal crosspieces the words "Timaeus" a work written by Plato, and "Ethics", a recurring theme of Aristotelian philosophy, are engraved.

Female Figure 1993

Polychrome bronze sculpture on stone base. Signature and date on the base. Guido Lodigiani, a Milanese sculptor who is still active and a passionate teacher at the Brera Academy, said of his art: " believe that the artist is called to show the root of human experience and in this way to excite again". And the root of existence, its womb, is the woman, whom Lodigiani considers the Woman of the Announcement, an expression of the restless and intimate tension towards the mystery of creation. Lodigiani's sculpture extracts form, as if from a mother's womb, starting from an original nucleus of matter in which it excavates voids and tensions. This plastic tension is well expressed in this naked female figure, seated but twisted, as if she had just emerged from indistinct matter and tended upwards, towards life, towards the light.

Girl in armchair

Terracotta sculpture. Signed lower right. Marco Cornini, a Milanese artist trained at the Brera Academy, works mainly with terracotta, with which he creates human figures, both male and female, men and women, or better yet boys and girls of more or less the same generation, in moments of their intimacy, often as a couple but also individually, with sentimental, erotic and passionate values. Here we see a naked woman sitting in an armchair in a room, in an attitude of intimate desperation.

Owl 1994

Bronze bas-relief. Signed lower left, initials AG upper right. On the back of the panel, there is the name, title and date of the work. Achille Guzzardella, a Milanese sculptor-painter, is particularly renowned for his sculptural portraits of well-known personalities from the Italian art world. Among others, he portrayed Vittorio Sgarbi, who called him 'the fighter of clay' and also 'Achille who paints with his soul'. Eclectic and refined, he has also created other subjects, using different techniques. Oneiric in his oil painting and always close to man in his sculptural work, Guzzardella fascinates art lovers with his concreteness expressed through his personal formal research.

We created Atypical Systems 1963/74

Serigraphs and photos. The work consists of three silk-screened cartoons (in cardboard box) with the text in English (original title "We have created atypical systems") and six photos portraying the artist, individually framed. On the back of the three serigraphs in English, numbered in sequence, there are the edition number 13/15, the date 1974 and the artist's signature; they also accompany three unsigned serigraphs with the text in Italian. Cioni Carpi, Milanese artist, engaged in conceptual and minimalist art, produced works in which imagination, sensitivity, expressive flair were fundamental. His creativity was also expressed in photography, installations, video, drawing, writing, the artist's book, as well as painting. The dimensions indicated are those of the single frame.

Tempera, pencil and charcoal on paper. Signed on the back. The drawing is registered in the Archive Fausto Melotti with code DIS 84020. Fausto Melotti was a multifaceted and very prolific artist and it is almost impossible to link his production to a particular technique or theme, without providing only a partial view of his artistic vision. The salient features that are constant in Melotti are geometry, the study of abstraction, which leads him to use realistic but not scientifically accurate elements, and arranging the elements so that they recall a musical rhythm, a detail that refers to his training as a musician Sculptor, painter, musician, poet, he made numerous design drawings for his works. Drawing represented for him a fundamental exercise, to transfuse the original graphic trait from sheets of paper into sculptures and ceramics. The sculptures for which he is best known are made up of geometric elements made with metals (brass, iron and gold) worked into thin filaments, giving life to ethereal, weightless and almost fragile compositions. The work is presented in a frame.