The painting Vesuvius, created by Andy Warhol in 1985 is to go back on the market on occasion of the historical exhibition at the Capodimonte Museum organised thanks to the Lucio Amelio Foundation, and by the Organisation of Artistic and Historical Heritage in Naples. The work will be put on auction by Pandolfini on 21st May during the session dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design.

Vesuvius is part of the series “Vesuvius by Warhol”, a sequence of 18 paintings dedicated to the Neapolitan volcano painted while active at different times of the day. The series signifies a unique particularity in the artist’s career who for the first time, didn’t present serigraphies or manipulations but actual paintings.

Warhol had a way of relishing the Neapolitan energy during one of the most important moments in the history of contemporary art, his encounter with Joseph Beyus that took place at the Lucio Amelio gallery in 1980. With the colourful and composed backdrop of the city, the artist’s two antithetical psyches had a way of confronting themselves and hiding outside of their respective territories. The event was the presentation of paintings that Warhol had made of Beyus. Four years later Warhol returned to Naples, and struck by a fascination for the city he was transformed into something that in all his artistic career he never really was: a painter. He painted the clearest and yet most elusive symbol of Naples, Vesuvius, without any ideological or technological thought, limiting himself to contemplating the sublime.

The painting that will be proposed at auction on 21st May is the only one in which the artist exclusively uses black and white, and which is presented at an estimate of 700,000 – 1,000,000 euros.

But this indisputably valuable painting will not be the only important subject presented at auction. In fact valuable paintings belonging to a private collection are to be showcased which forms a significant panorama of twentieth century Italy encompassing some of its most important leaders: Massimo Campigli with “Bagnanti” (estimated at 100,000 – 150,00 euros); Filippo De Pisis with “Passage de l’Odeon” (estimated at 70,000 – 100,000 euros); Carlo Carrà with “Marina” (estimated at 70,000 – 100,000 euros); Felice Casorati with “Fanciulla addormentata nello studio” (estimated at 80,000 – 120,000 euros) and by the same artist “Vestale, Atto I”, an oil on wood, the set design realised for the Vestale di Gaspare Spontini on occasion of the preparation for the “May Florentine Musical Festival” founded in 1933 (estimated at 35,000 – 45,000 euros).

Still within this section, are two splendid paintings by Renato Guttuso, “Tetti di Roma” (estimated at 70,000 – 100,000 euros) and “Natura morta” (estimated at 70,000 – 100,000 euros) and a significant piece by Enrico Baj from 1975, “Consiglio di Amministrazione”, a typical polymer and acrylic paint collage on canvass (estimated at 30,000 – 40,000 euros). Finally, also included are works by Giuseppe Migneco, Mario Sironi and Xavier Bueno.

Great attention should also be payed to the design section, an unmissable event for the auction house Pandolfini who has dedicated two exhibitions to it every year since 2003. The 21st May auction will propose furnitures and designs by huge Italian designers belonging to an epoch spanning between the 20s and the 80s of the last century. Works by Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Ico Parisi, Angelo Mangiarotti, Paolo Buffa, Piero Fornasetti, and Joe Colombo will be presented at auction. In the other lots, a living room designed by Giuseppe Pagano will be presented at auction, initially designed for the Luigi Bocconi University, created using curved beech wood and raffia (estimated at 8,00 – 10,s000 euro).

Also to be noted by Gio Ponti is a flat plate by Richard Ginori belonging to the series “Le mie donne” (estimated at 20,000 – 25,000 euros) and a chestnut coloured chest of draws (estimated at 11,500 – 13,500 euros).

Auction
Modern and Contemporary Art and Design
Wednesday 21st May 2008, time: 18
Milan, Via Chiaravalle, 7

Exhibition
From Friday 16th to Tuesday 20th May 2008
from 10.00 to13.30 – from 14.30 to 19.00

Casa d’Aste Pandolfini
Palazzo Ramirez-Montalvo, Borgo degli Albizi 26, 50122 Firenze
tel. 055 2340888, fax 055 2444343
www.pandolfini.it, info@pandolfini