Landscape with fossil

Oil painting on canvas. Signature, date and title on the back. It is the work of the Milanese painter Giulio Scapaticci, of the artists of the pictorial-political current who at the turn of the 1950s-1960s was defined as “Existential Realism”. Immediately considered an artist sensitive to existential issues, he began to paint the Milan of the 50s and 60s with its typical railing houses, the peeling windows that open onto a darkly colored urban landscape, the gray industrial suburbs and desolate, quartered oxen and fish hanging on nails. In the mid-1970s, he leaves Milan and moves to the Oltrepò Pavese, where his painting is transformed, goes beyond the previous dark and monochromatic introspective experiences and in his paintings appears a rural world made of more lively and luminous tones: farmhouses, still natures, still lifes, insects, rivers, resting sandy loops. Back in Milan, from the 1980s he returns to depict a more painful humanity, with insects that transform and settle to cover sensations of solitude and voluntary silences. The work proposed here is part of the production attributable to the years of Oltrepò Pavese. The scene is divided into two distinct panels: on the left a glimpse of the countryside dominated in the background by the black profile of an industrial city, with the silhouette of an insect in the foreground; on the right, the corpse of a fish, the fossil of the title. The colors are light, but a greyness dominates that emphasizes the gloom of the scene. The painting has a slight damage in the upper right. It is presented in a frame.

Insect in the landscape, 1973

Oil painting on canvas. On the back you can find the signature, the title and the date of the work. It is the work of the Milanese painter Giulio Scapaticci, of the artists of the pictorial-political current who at the turn of the 1950s-1960s was defined as “Existential Realism”. Immediately considered an artist sensitive to existential issues, he began to paint the Milan of the 50s and 60s with its typical railing houses, the peeling windows that open onto a darkly colored urban landscape, the gray industrial suburbs and desolate, quartered oxen and fish hanging on nails. In the mid-1970s, he leaves Milan and moves to the Oltrepò Pavese, where his painting is transformed, goes beyond the previous dark and monochromatic introspective experiences and in his paintings appears a rural world made of more lively and luminous tones: farmhouses, still natures, still lifes, insects, rivers, resting sandy loops. Back in Milan, from the 1980s he returns to depict a more painful humanity, with insects that transform and settle to cover sensations of solitude and voluntary silences. The work proposed here is part of the production attributable to the years of Oltrepò Pavese, with the large Lombard farmhouse on the left, a glimpse of the sunny plain and, in the foreground, an insect. The work is presented in a frame.

Studio per Affresco 1965

Mixed media on paper. Below are the signature, date and title. It is a tribute to the great Polish entrepreneur, founder of the homonymous cosmetic house Helena Rubinstein, made in the year of her death. Giorgio Bellandi, born in Milan in 1931, was a very talented set painter. Passionate about art from a very young age, he attended the Brera Academy and became an active part of the Milanese artistic environment of those years. Bellandi worked as a set designer at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and made his debut as a painter in the 1950s by joining the existential realism, a very active artistic movement in Milan in the second half of the 1950s, becoming one of the exponents of this current. Existential Realism was originally based on the search for something different, an alternative both to informal painting and to the effects of existentialism, especially political, which had taken hold due to the damage caused by World War II. Ideologically these artists had in common the refusal towards authoritarianisms and towards social and political conformisms, in an environment oriented overall to the left. Bellandi is an artist gifted with talent and creativity, a lover of freedom of expression and beauty, and performs works of interesting reading with intense but harmonious chromatic tones. Passionate about Lake Como, he often came to the Lario in search of relaxation and inspiration. In '64 he participated in the Venice Biennale and in '65 he was invited to the IX Quadriennale in Rome. Very active painter, he realizes many exhibitions in national and international territory, until his illness which unfortunately was fatal to him, in 1976. The work is presented in a frame.

Studi per le "Persecuzioni" 1964

Group of four mixed techniques on paper, individually signed and dated 8/10/64, and further signature with title under the framed composition. These are preparatory sketches for the works that the artist exhibited at the exhibition, designed and created in 1967-68 with his friend Amilcare Rambelli at the Galleria del Grattacielo in Milan. Giorgio Bellandi, born in Milan in 1931, was a very talented set painter. Passionate about art from a very young age, he attended the Brera Academy and became an active part of the Milanese artistic environment of those years. Bellandi worked as a set designer at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and made his debut as a painter in the 1950s by joining the existential realism, a very active artistic movement in Milan in the second half of the 1950s, becoming one of the exponents of this current. Existential Realism was originally based on the search for something different, an alternative both to informal painting and to the effects of existentialism, especially political, which had taken hold due to the damage caused by World War II. Ideologically these artists had in common the refusal towards authoritarianisms and towards social and political conformisms, in an environment oriented overall to the left. Bellandi is an artist gifted with talent and creativity, a lover of freedom of expression and beauty, and performs works of interesting reading with intense but harmonious chromatic tones. Passionate about Lake Como, he often came to the Lario in search of relaxation and inspiration. In '64 he participated in the Venice Biennale and in '65 he was invited to the IX Quadriennale in Rome. Very active painter, he realizes many exhibitions in national and international territory, up to the illness which unfortunately was fatal to him, in 1976.

Untitled 1958

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. The work of strong emotional impact proposes an almost monochromatic purple background, in which a few black and white strokes are inserted to define a silhouette curled up on the left, perhaps a human form, collected and closed in on itself. Born in 1934 in Viareggio, where he still lives, the painter and sculptor Mario Francesconi is considered one of the few survivors of Dadaism, which since the end of the 1950s has gone through the seasons of Italian and European art in a distinctly personal search for forms and techniques. Starting from his first solo show in 1959 he develops an artistic path that goes through different phases, often attributable to a passion for poor and recycled materials. His artistic activity moves between the areas of painting, sculpture, collage and installation and borders on the adjacent areas of poetry and literature, also thanks to friendships and professional relationships with some of the most significant figures of the intellectual world. Italian of the second half of the last century, from Emilio Villa to Cesare Garboli, from Leonardo Sciascia to Mario Luzi, from Cesare Zavattini to Pier Paolo Pasolini, from Alfonso Gatto to Sandro Penna to Venturino Venturi. The work is presented in a frame.

Print on paper. Rare anti-racist poster which, as indicated below, was published as a supplement to the magazine "MAI" of June '68, in the series "I manifesti di MAI di Giò" (Giorgio Tavaglione). It is a manifesto of the beat movements that spread in Italy in the years 1967-1968: thanks to the use of the mimeograph, which allowed the printing of numerous flyers, posters, poetic anthologies, small plaquettes and especially magazines, the young beatniks they created an alternative information channel that represented the primary vehicle for disseminating the principles that animated the beat movement, as opposed to the official cultural and communication circuits. Within the magazines, and in general in the various beat activities, poetic writing assumed an essential role as an integral part of the practice of dissent, since it represented one of the main forms of expression and affirmation of a different ideal of life, as well as of a different idea of collectivity. Giorgio Tavaglione was one of the best-known artistic exponents of the beat movement: as a complete self-taught Giò he designed the posters, flyers and covers of the first Italian underground magazines of the 1960s; disappeared for years after a trip to India, he subsequently reappeared as a draftsman of tarot cards and talismans in the creation of which he transferred his excellent graphic quality, his typical meticulous and imaginative, esoteric and visionary style. Work in frame.

Poster printed in Cologno Monzese in 1967, in a limited edition of 500 copies. This is copy no. 7/500, enhanced by the dedication and autograph signature of the graphic designer Giorgio Tavaglione, author of the poster. It is the first manifesto of the beat movement and of the Italian underground culture, promoted in Milan since 1966. On that date, the magazine "Mondo Beat" was born, with director Melchiorre Gerbino, inspired by the pacifist protest movements of the Dutch PROVO, and close to the movements Italian anarchists. The young beatniks created an alternative information channel that represented the primary vehicle for disseminating the principles that animated the beat movement, as opposed to the official cultural and communication circuits. Within the magazines, and in general in the various beat activities, poetic writing assumed an essential role as an integral part of the practice of dissent, since it represented one of the main forms of expression and affirmation of a different ideal of life, as well as of a different idea of collectivity. Giorgio Tavaglione was one of the best-known artistic exponents of the beat movement: as a complete self-taught Giò he designed the posters, flyers and covers of the first Italian underground magazines of the 1960s; disappeared for years after a trip to India, he subsequently reappeared as a draftsman of tarot cards and talismans in the creation of which he transferred his excellent graphic quality, his typical meticulous and imaginative, esoteric and visionary style. The work is framed.

Painted decoration of wardrobe doors

Oil on wooden table. Signed on the first lower right door. It is the pictorial decoration of the eight doors of a wardrobe, made to measure for the client's family, which make up a large abstract scene - almost a scenography! - in very delicate pastel colors, in which deconstructed, dreamy, floating figures are glimpsed. Giorgio Bellandi, born in Milan in 1931, was a very talented set painter. Passionate about art from a very young age, he attended the Brera Academy and became an active part of the Milanese artistic environment of those years. Bellandi worked as a set designer at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and made his debut as a painter in the 1950s by joining the existential realism, a very active artistic movement in Milan in the second half of the 1950s, becoming one of the exponents of this current. Existential Realism was originally based on the search for something different, an alternative both to informal painting and to the effects of existentialism, especially political, which had taken hold due to the damage caused by World War II. Ideologically these artists had in common the refusal towards authoritarianisms and towards social and political conformisms, in an environment that was generally oriented to the left. Bellandi is an artist gifted with talent and creativity, a lover of freedom of expression and beauty, and performs works of interesting reading with intense but harmonious chromatic tones. Passionate about Lake Como, he often came to the Lario in search of relaxation and inspiration. In '64 he participated in the Venice Biennale and in '65 he was invited to the IX Quadriennale in Rome. Very active painter, he realizes many exhibitions in national and international territory, until his illness which unfortunately was fatal to him, in 1976. It is possible to carry out the intervention of detachment of the doors from the cabinet from the structure and their reassembly on a unitary panel.

Pair of Ink Drawings

Ink on paper. One of the two is signed on the lower right. The works of the Russian artist Vyacheslav Sawich Mikhailov are exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Tretyakov Gallery or the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the National Museum of Russian Art, the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg. Considered an expressionist author, he creates scenes of intense drama with different techniques. The design proposed here is part of a series of scenes full of dramatically intertwined figures in contortions of the body, with allegorical elements and patches of often red color, evoking blood. In frame.

Untitled 1990

Ink on paper. Signed and dated lower right. The works of the Russian artist Vyacheslav Sawich Mikhailov are exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Tretyakov Gallery or the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the National Museum of Russian Art, the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg. Considered an expressionist author, he creates scenes of intense drama with different techniques. The design proposed here is part of a series of scenes full of dramatically intertwined figures in contortions of the body, with allegorical elements and patches of often red color, evoking blood. In frame.

Untitled 1990

Ink on paper. Signed and dated lower right. The works of the Russian artist Vyacheslav Sawich Mikhailov are exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Tretyakov Gallery or the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the National Museum of Russian Art, the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg. Considered an expressionist author, he creates scenes of intense drama with different techniques. The design proposed here is part of a series of scenes full of dramatically intertwined figures in contortions of the body, with allegorical elements and patches of often red to evoke blood. In frame.

Untitled 1990

Ink on paper. Signed and dated lower right. The works of the Russian artist Vyacheslav Sawich Mikhailov are exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Tretyakov Gallery or the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the National Museum of Russian Art, the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg. Considered an expressionist author, he creates scenes of intense drama with different techniques. The design proposed here is part of a series of scenes full of dramatically intertwined figures in contortions of the body, with allegorical elements and patches of often red to evoke blood. In frame.

Tableau doré

Mixed technique on plywood (painting and silver paper sheets). On the back, authentic with stamp and signature of the artist's sister. The work belongs to the series of Tableaux dorés, works created by the Milanese artist Remo Bianco starting from the 1950s. Born and trained in Milan, Remo Bianco was a pupil of De Pisis, in whose studio he frequented the great Italian artists of the twentieth century (Carrà, Sironi, Savinio, Soffici, Soldati, Marini, Cantatore). After the interlude of the war (enlisted, sank with his ship and was taken prisoner in Tunis), he resumed his artistic activity in Milan, participating in the Nuclear Movement and Spatialism, coming to completely detach himself from figurative painting to create works made of brushstrokes mashed potato. At the beginning of the fifties he began to create works, pictorial and sculptural, with different materials and to experiment with different themes and techniques; to this production belong the Tableaux dorés, composed of silvered or gilded aluminum foils on painted bases.

Tableau doré

Mixed technique on plywood (painting and silver paper sheets). On the back, authentic with stamp and signature of the artist's sister. The work belongs to the series of Tableaux dorés, works created by the Milanese artist Remo Bianco starting from the 1950s. Born and educated in Milan, Remo Bianco was a pupil of De Pisis, in whose studio he frequented the great Italian artists of the twentieth century (Carrà, Sironi, Savinio, Soffici, Soldati, Marini, Cantatore). After the interlude of the war (enlisted, sank with his ship and was taken prisoner in Tunis), he resumed his artistic activity in Milan, participating in the Nuclear Movement and Spatialism, coming to completely detach himself from figurative painting to create works made of brushstrokes mashed potato. At the beginning of the fifties he began to create works, pictorial and sculptural, with different materials and to experiment with different themes and techniques; to this production belong the Tableaux dorés, composed of silvered or gilded aluminum foils on painted bases. The work is presented in a frame.

Untitled 1999

Mixed media on wood. Signed and dated on the back. Born in Magenta, Giovanni Sesia does not define himself as a painter or even a sculptor or photographer, but an "artist". He attended the Brera Academy in Milan and approached painting with paintings with a strong sign and bright colors. After an initial artistic research in abstractionism and the discovery of photography as a technical means to combine with pictorial expressiveness, at the end of the nineties Giovanni Sesia discovers an entire photographic archive of an abandoned psychiatric hospital: fascinated by old photographs, which portray faces and forgotten places, the artist enlarges and re-elaborates them by superimposing backgrounds, pictorial retouches and calligraphic inserts, investigating the theme of madness and bringing to light existences marked by pain and disease, to subtract them from the passage of time and oblivion. The sense of tradition, the warm colors of the earth, browns, ocher and rust, like the writings made with an almost illegible handwriting, become the personal and unmistakable traits even in the works that represent different themes, such as domestic objects, the landscapes, the city, all with a common matrix, the human being and the value of memory. The work is framed.

Flight to Egypt 1991

Acrylics on board. Accompanied by authentication on autographed photo of the author, with stamp of the Verlato Gallery in Milan. The work presented here is part of the rich series of works called by the artist Cristalli, due to the reference to the geometries of these minerals, which he considers containers of energy and light. On a three-dimensionally shaped board with asymmetrical protruding points, recalling the structure of a crystal, Jori paints elements that emerge from the background, with chromatic choices that all refer to the same range but with different shades, to emulate the reflections of light. This work is made up of three elements, of different sizes and shapes, which are proposed horizontally juxtaposed, albeit without touching each other: on the black background, the shapes of some geometric shapes emerge, in increasingly lighter shades of gray up to white, architectural structures, evoking houses along a road, the path made by the Holy Family in the flight to Egypt to seek salvation from Herod. The work comes from an important Milanese private collection.

Female Face 2001

Oil painting on canvas. Dated and signed on the back. Born in Seregno, Danilo Martinis was trained with Osvaldo Minotti. Painter and designer, he has furnished prestigious residences all over the world, his works are particularly appreciated in the United Arab Emirates and in Russia. He loves to express his thoughts through graphic-figurative images rendered through geometric effects and chromatic games, using mainly female figures as interpreters. In this work he proposes a close-up of a female face, enhancing its expressiveness through the play of colors in the ranges of yellow.

Eyes 1995

Oil painting on canvas. Dated and signed on the back. Born in Seregno, Danilo Martinis was trained with Osvaldo Minotti. Painter and designer, he has furnished prestigious residences all over the world, his works are particularly appreciated in the United Arab Emirates and in Russia. He loves to express his thoughts through graphic-figurative images rendered through geometric effects and chromatic games, using mainly female figures as interpreters. In this work he proposes a very close-up of a female face, in particular framing the eyes.