translated by Giorgina Arcuri

Only few days are left until the auction of Modern and Contemporary Art that will be held at Christie’s Milan. For the 26th May the Italian public, but not only, is getting ready for this extraordinary sale that will have as protagonists the most famous names of Italian 20th century art, such as Mario Schifano, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Enzo Cucchi, Tano Festa, Renato Guttuso, but also more international figures, including Tom Wesselmann, Hans Hartung and Victor Vasarely.
Of the 383 lots that will be presented at Palazzo Clerici, one beautiful painting by Piero Manzoni stands out, entitled “Achrome”, with a pre-sale estimate included between 300 and 400 thousand euros. Manzoni’s first Achromes date back to 1956 and are to be considered “silent”, colourless canvasses, soaked in kaolin and chalk but without evident manipulations by the artist. Only two years later, the first folded and crinkled canvasses appeared and, as we can see in the canvas auctioned by Christie’s, Manzoni organizes the surface in geometric grids. Despite the fragmentation in squares, the work is “an area in freedom”. The canvas is not white but completely monochrome. Prepared with kaolin, the artist leaves the canvas to dry naturally, without intervening in the desiccation process. The result is a work characterized by a dazzling whiteness, in which Manzoni is repetitive, deprived of any symbolism.
Also Lucio Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale, Attese”, executed in 1960-61 and estimated at 200-300 thousand euros, is worthy of consideration. A simply wonderful work that expresses Fontana’s Spatialism, that is not a theory nor poetics of space, but a clear assertion that anything done consciously entails making space. He disproves radically every “representation” of space by means of traditional painting and sculpture.  As a painter he tries to destroy painting: he spreads out the colour on the surface and then he “violates” it with one or more cuts. It is a gesture that tries to put the external space in communication with the internal space, the gesture that splits the painting reestablishes continuity between the space on this side and on that side of the surface. Other 17 lots by Lucio Fontana will be presented, in particular “Concetto Spaziale” from 1961-62, which will be offered to the public in the saleroom for an estimate of 180-280 euros. An interesting work where the use of golden stands out, a colour which is strongly present in Italian and European art culture. With great irony Fontana went back to using this colour in a period when it no longer seemed to be contemporary and he plunged into the past proposing a painting with a golden background realized, however, with modern and synthetic materials.
Besides the works just described, Christie’s auction has selected 11 pieces by Mimmo Rotella: “Elvis Presley” from 1961 (estimate 150-200 thousand euros) and “Come un animale” from 1954. The latter is to be considered essential in the artistic research of Mimmo Rotella. Indeed, the décollage, invented in 1953, goes beyond its experimental aspect to become a mature, but at the same time radical,  technique. “Come un animale” is an emblematic composition where, for the first time in Rotella’s poetics, the human figure is evoked. It is a simulacrum that emerges from the crackles of the matter, from the fragments of a real that dissolves. Rotella seems to allow the deposit of animal skin on the surface covered with catramina: memories of ancient graffiti blend with memories of the Roman walls giving form to a contamination rich of meanings.
One of the works worth pointing out is certainly a painting by Tancredi entitled “Natura e Contemplatività” from 1957, estimated at 180-250 thousand euros,  but also “Chiesa di Periferia o La Cattedrale” by Mario Sironi (estimate 200-300 thousand euros), a beautiful painting where the artist focuses on the architecture of cathedrals, symbol of the Italian primacy, of the greatness of the Mediterranean culture.
Finally, we should mention that Christie’s Milan will auction “Natura Morta” by Giorgio Morandi (estimate 250-350 thousand) and “Esplosione (Non dorme nessuno in cielo)” by Emilio Vedova, which will start from an initial estimate of 200-300 thousand euros. From a stylistic point of view, this painting marks a revolution and at last presents the language of a mature Vedova: its structure is strongly dominated by sharp wedged triangles, which certainly descend from the Russian abstractionist culture. However, this structure is reduced into fragments by the emergence of wide areas where the pictorial stroke, free and immediate, breaks the order of geometry to give space to a vigorous gestural expressivity. This, besides the moral austerity that is reflected in the use of a sober and severe palette, is undoubtedly the most significant contribute of Emilio Vedova to post-war Italian art.