Lot No. 204


Emilio Vedova *


(Venice 1919–2006)
Per la Spagna, n. 11, 1962, signed, titled and dated 1962 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 200 x 100 cm, framed

Provenance:
Marlborough Galleria d’arte, Rome (label on the reverse)
Galleria Blu, Milan
Galleria Falchi, Milan (label and stamp on the reverse)
European Private Collection (acquired from the above)

Exhibited:
Milan, Emilio Vedova, Galleria Falchi, 1972, ill. on the exhibition leaflet

Almost half a century ago in America and Europe there was an explosion of a type of painting that came to be defined as Informalism. It abandoned shapes, structures and, above all, like a modern iconoclasm, even images. The rest remained on the canvas – colour and some signs. For colour, one began to speak in terms of the pictorial matter, such had its role been turned upside down. Tone, timbre and shade were part of an archaic vocabulary that belonged to the past. The paintbrush and colour itself were often replaced by other materials, while the sign (speaking of design was no longer appropriate) coagulated into bundles, shapes and tangles of colour itself, lively and frantic.
One of the strongest voices of the movement was, without doubt, that of Emilio Vedova. Out of the canvas he created a mirror, a door, a passage which would lead through the pictorial matter to his paesaggio del non dove (‘landscape of no place’), on which he would then leave the marks of a painful confrontation with existence.
In 1962 he created Per la Spagna (‘For Spain’), poly-material cycles of work, for the exhibition organised at Ca’ Giustinian in Venice, during the Biennale.
Visually assessing the cycle of paintings, one first of all notices a clash of signs, energies and elements; ferocious assaults and tumefactions of black, blazing fires of red, white whip strokes and razor marks, hisses of blue which precede the collapse and the waterfall of yellows.
Faced with the spectacle of violence offered by the twentieth century (certainly facilitated by technological progress), which reached a peak of aggression that was possibly greater than ever before, perhaps there was no way to respond other than painting in this way. Others would experiment with a new order, a rhythmic syntax which was renounced by Vedova in favour of the revelation of the mystery of evil, recording his painful and bewildered movement towards his ‘devils’.
Perhaps the most extraordinary element of Vedova’s work, however, is his clear perception of a distinct sense of life’s magnificence. There would be no sense of satisfaction if nothing but pure violence were expressed on his canvases. Rather, the fascination we feel when looking at Vedova’s works tells us that, within them, art’s powerful cathartic vocation is at work: that is to say, that dimension of beauty and splendour that allows us to also confront knowledge of the negative. The fact is that, while he recounts the narrative of human aggression, Vedova also recounts another violence: the power of feeling, of Eros and of the life principle. Each death principle has a corresponding equal and opposite life principle. And, with this, comes the possibility of salvation.

“My relationship with my work is one of great unease. To paint means to find oneself homeless, with demons behind you that push your hand, your arm, all your body ahead. Who knows what will finally be revealed on the canvas: scrawls, lava, sex, impossibilities, barriers, signs… an impregnable territory which constantly changes in front of my eyes as if it were inhabited by a terrible spirit.”
Emilio Vedova

16.05.2018 - 19:00

Realized price: **
EUR 234,800.-
Estimate:
EUR 100,000.- to EUR 150,000.-

Emilio Vedova *


(Venice 1919–2006)
Per la Spagna, n. 11, 1962, signed, titled and dated 1962 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 200 x 100 cm, framed

Provenance:
Marlborough Galleria d’arte, Rome (label on the reverse)
Galleria Blu, Milan
Galleria Falchi, Milan (label and stamp on the reverse)
European Private Collection (acquired from the above)

Exhibited:
Milan, Emilio Vedova, Galleria Falchi, 1972, ill. on the exhibition leaflet

Almost half a century ago in America and Europe there was an explosion of a type of painting that came to be defined as Informalism. It abandoned shapes, structures and, above all, like a modern iconoclasm, even images. The rest remained on the canvas – colour and some signs. For colour, one began to speak in terms of the pictorial matter, such had its role been turned upside down. Tone, timbre and shade were part of an archaic vocabulary that belonged to the past. The paintbrush and colour itself were often replaced by other materials, while the sign (speaking of design was no longer appropriate) coagulated into bundles, shapes and tangles of colour itself, lively and frantic.
One of the strongest voices of the movement was, without doubt, that of Emilio Vedova. Out of the canvas he created a mirror, a door, a passage which would lead through the pictorial matter to his paesaggio del non dove (‘landscape of no place’), on which he would then leave the marks of a painful confrontation with existence.
In 1962 he created Per la Spagna (‘For Spain’), poly-material cycles of work, for the exhibition organised at Ca’ Giustinian in Venice, during the Biennale.
Visually assessing the cycle of paintings, one first of all notices a clash of signs, energies and elements; ferocious assaults and tumefactions of black, blazing fires of red, white whip strokes and razor marks, hisses of blue which precede the collapse and the waterfall of yellows.
Faced with the spectacle of violence offered by the twentieth century (certainly facilitated by technological progress), which reached a peak of aggression that was possibly greater than ever before, perhaps there was no way to respond other than painting in this way. Others would experiment with a new order, a rhythmic syntax which was renounced by Vedova in favour of the revelation of the mystery of evil, recording his painful and bewildered movement towards his ‘devils’.
Perhaps the most extraordinary element of Vedova’s work, however, is his clear perception of a distinct sense of life’s magnificence. There would be no sense of satisfaction if nothing but pure violence were expressed on his canvases. Rather, the fascination we feel when looking at Vedova’s works tells us that, within them, art’s powerful cathartic vocation is at work: that is to say, that dimension of beauty and splendour that allows us to also confront knowledge of the negative. The fact is that, while he recounts the narrative of human aggression, Vedova also recounts another violence: the power of feeling, of Eros and of the life principle. Each death principle has a corresponding equal and opposite life principle. And, with this, comes the possibility of salvation.

“My relationship with my work is one of great unease. To paint means to find oneself homeless, with demons behind you that push your hand, your arm, all your body ahead. Who knows what will finally be revealed on the canvas: scrawls, lava, sex, impossibilities, barriers, signs… an impregnable territory which constantly changes in front of my eyes as if it were inhabited by a terrible spirit.”
Emilio Vedova


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Auction: Contemporary Art I
Auction type: Saleroom auction
Date: 16.05.2018 - 19:00
Location: Vienna | Palais Dorotheum
Exhibition: 05.05. - 16.05.2018


** Purchase price incl. charges and taxes

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