African Naive Painting - The Orange Seller

Sole Produttore

Silkscreen, applied to a metal plate. Signed lower right, titled at the bottom. Edition 446/500. The sun has been a theme dear to Giò Pomodoro since the 1950s, a theme the artist never abandoned, developing it particularly from the second half of the 1970s until a few years before his death, when, in 2000, he donated a monumental white marble sun to the City of Genoa, located right at the mouth of the harbor, on the Ponte dei Mille. The Producing Sun is a metaphorical representation of society's equitable exploitation of the sun's generative power. Passionate about astronomy, geometry, and poetry, Gio's Pomodoro has always been fascinated by the vital and symbolic potential of the image of the star. In these works, the artist represents it through a stylized circular shape, which is broken to accentuate the potential of elementary geometric forms (the circle, the square, the triangle) to open up to different dynamic tensions. Around these basic shapes, Pomodoro then inserts writings consisting of words that refer to referential concepts, such as real, possible, collective—in this case: "It moves, turns, builds a common harvest"—combined with other inscribed shapes that indicate physical structures, such as the hinge, the wheel, and the seed.

Relief Painting '58-'68

Mixed media on canvas, with material applications. Signed lower right. From 1958 to 1968 ORAZI, who had already moved from the figurative to the abstract phase, devoted himself to creating compositions in relief: he collected and used materials and fibres of different types, especially natural materials and fibres such as tiny grains of sand, seeds, plant filaments and fragments of bark, with which he created relief shapes that emerged from the surface of the canvas. The basis of this artistic experience, called Peinture en Relief, was the exploration of nature, its components and its phenomena (flowers, plants, sands, rocks, volcanic lava, coasts and seabeds, eruptions, storms, petrified meteorites). The works of this period were initially characterised by a still rather low relief; but subsequently the relief became more and more pronounced, often coming out of the perimeter of the support, to the point of appearing more like statues than paintings. The work is presented in a frame. From a collection of the artist's family.

Tête-Paysage 1970 ca.

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. The painting belongs to ORAZI's production from 1970 to 1977. In this phase the artist abandoned completely abstract and relief painting and returned to figurative painting, rendered however with simplified and distorted lines. In particular, he created the series called Lignes Circulaires and the one, to which this work belongs, of paintings called Têtes-Paysage, in which he created compositions that depict mysterious human heads or heads of fauns and mythological figures (sometimes accompanied by their insect companions): the lines, in these paintings, intertwine to simultaneously form compositions, intertwining bodies, or as in this work, hide a head or a face, often "faunesco". The work comes from the artist's family's private collection.

Seashore with Figures

Watercolor on cardboard. Signed lower right. Paolo Sala, born and trained in Milan, distinguished himself as one of the most important landscape painters of his time, as well as a view painter of the many Italian and foreign cities in which he worked. He favored watercolors, but also painted extensively in oils. He uses quick, broad, overlapping brushstrokes, in an Impressionist style, playing with color and light to create evocative atmospheres, as in this maritime view of figures on a beach busy sifting sand. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Figure in Landscape 1920

Oil on canvas. Signature, date, and location (Venice) at lower left. Work by the Venetian artist Giovanni Caldana, who established himself as a portraitist. Presented here is a portrait of a man in walking attire against the backdrop of Alpine mountain slopes. The work is presented in a period frame.

Horse in a 1950s Landscape

Marker on rice paper, glued to cardboard. Signed at the bottom. Below is a dedication from the artist (Greetings dear - Aligi). The work is accompanied by a photo certificate from the Sassu Foundation, archive number PNV49. The protagonist of this drawing is once again the horse, the artist's favorite animal. He was fascinated by the energy and dynamic strength of these animals, which represented life itself and freedom, which Sassu expressed through the twisting of their figures. Sassu's works, which include painting, sculpture, and ceramics, showcase the power of horses in scenes of racing, battles, or immersed in nature, often with an emphasis on dynamism and plastic energy. Framed work.

Landscape with Figures and Cattle

Oil on canvas. The work, signed Sorolla lower right and dated 1928, harks back to the style of Joaquim Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), the renowned Valencian painter who chose to reflect the Mediterranean light in the everyday scenes of his city, in a unique style known as luminism. His works are characterized by their plein air painting, depicting simple people often framed in fishing and sea scenes, capturing customs and traditions, as well as the freedom with which they reflect light and color. In particular, the urban beaches of Valencia, animated by numerous figures, including bathers and others, were a recurring setting in many of his paintings. In this work, the scene is indeed that of a beach, where figures with some cattle pass by, while beached boats and bathers can be glimpsed in the background. The work, which is effectively pictorial, despite being very close to Sorolla's manner and style, is not recognized as authentic by the artist's official archive. It is presented in a period frame.

Figure in Rest 1969

Pen on paper. Signed lower right. Accompanied by photo authentication from the Mario Tozzi Archive. In Maestro Tozzi's extensive production there are many drawings, such as this one presented here, made with different techniques (ink, pastel, pencil, sanguine), dedicated to the human figure: in his dry and stylized style, Mario Tozzi outlines stylized, refined figurines in their silent and discreet geometry, favored by the absence of color, which brings out the forms on the white paper. Even in his pictorial production, Mario Tozzi's favorite subjects are, classically, figures and still lifes, but both figures and death are a set of solid geometric elements, the sphere, the cylinder, the cone, etc. The bodies are elementary, essential in the lines and details, powerful, statuesque, composed of just modeled solids, while the still lifes are a celebration of Euclidean geometry such as the jugs, bowls, flasks which are paradigms of volume and geometric rigor . Mario Tozzi's compositions are influenced by Cubism for certain cuts, by Metaphysics for certain architectural insertions and by Abstractism for the insertion of geometric figures. The work is presented in a frame.

Interior with Figures and Animals, 1917

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. In Giuseppe Solenghi's extensive production, rich in lyricism expressed with delicate and refined tones and strokes, the urban landscapes of Milan or the Venetian lagoon views prevail, but there are also several glimpses of the countryside, mainly Lombardy, as well as rustic interiors. In this work the artist portrays the interior of a peasant house, where humans and animals coexist: the scene is pervaded by a serene atmosphere of family everyday life, in which the warm light of the sun filtering through the open door creates plays of light and shadow on the earth tones of the interior. The painting is presented in a mid-20th century frame.

Landscape with Figures

Mixed media on cardboard. Signed lower left. Stamp of the artist's studio on the back. The painter of Apulian origins Giuseppe Casciaro, painter and teacher at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples where he trained, was essentially a landscape painter and produced in particular views of the surroundings of Naples, Irpinia (Nusco) and Puglia. He preferred the pastel painting technique in which he excelled. Here is a glimpse of a Mediterranean countryside, crossed by a path with wayfarers. It is presented in a period frame.

Interior with Flowers, 1995

Oil on canvas. Signature, date, and title on the back. The painting expresses the Morandi-esque style of Maurizio Ligas, an artist who emerged in the 1970s and 1980s but who adopted an anti-modern style, playing on the luminosity of his subjects. Framed.

Maurizio Arena Directs..." 1991

Watercolor and marker on paper. Signed lower right, with the addition of the self-description "almost blind"; title at the top. The work is accompanied by a photo authentication from the Luciano Minguzzi Museum Foundation. A sculptor, engraver, and medallist, Minguzzi also created numerous drawings, often sketches for sculptures. The drawing is presented in a frame.