Michelangelo Pistoletto

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner circa 1975

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the image fails to convey the reflective surface of the polished stainless steel. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals a small matte area of stainless steel along the extreme right edge near the top, likely inherent to the metal. Near the centre of the composition there are a few short vertical scuff marks, which are inconsistencies from the initial polishing of the steel. There is a very faint and thin line of media accretion running vertically along the left edge near the bottom corner. There is some very light wear to the print at the extreme lower left edge, revealing the steel beneath. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals a few very small spots of retouching to the figure.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Irresistibly alluring, Bionda Nuda- Orizzontale forms part of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Quadri Specchianti, or Mirror Paintings, one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable series of the late Twentieth Century. Bionda Nuda - Orizzontale is completely fresh to the market, having been acquired directly from the artist in 1975; the work has been in the same Italian collection since that time. A female nude sits elegantly on a table, demurely turned away from the onlooker; yet the scene has a curiously intimate quality, as though the woman has been glimpsed totally unawares whilst luxuriating in her own space. Pistoletto’s expert framing of the scene recalls the convention of the female Odalisque, an artistic tradition that reached its apogee in the work of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century French painters such as Auguste Dominique Ingres and Jean-Léon Gérôme. Pistoletto provides an utterly contemporary reading of this art historical precedent within Bionda Nuda - Orizzontale, presenting a cleverly executed modern interpretation of an antique custom.
Seeking an innovative form of artistic expression, Pistoletto began his series of Mirror Paintings in 1961, experimenting with various techniques until perfecting the method in 1962. Photographic images, chosen to give the greatest sense of verisimilitude, were transferred onto tissue then applied to a stainless steel background; the images were silkscreened onto the steel from 1971. Pistoletto recalled the genesis of the Mirror Paintings: “I decided to make a better reflection with another material: polished stainless steel. There was objectivity in the reflected reality that told me how to realise the figure. I could no longer paint the figure as I did before: that was a pictorial solution, but it needed a photographic solution…” (the artist quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Serpentine Gallery, Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Mirror of Judgement, 2011, p. 17).
The Mirror Paintings have the remarkable effect of involving the viewer intricately within the work itself: we see ourselves reflected in the midst of the composition, adding another layer to the multi-faceted symbolism of the series. Providing a poetic chronology of his oeuvre, Pistoletto's series seems to look into the past and the future simultaneously, eluding traditional classification as it continues to reflect an ever changing world around them. This is particularly true of Bionda Nuda – Orizzontale, due to its substantial and immersive scale. As Pistoletto recalls: "In traditional painting, representation and drawing covers the entire surface. This is a static aspect that has come down through the years as a univocal signal. It can correspond to the figure that I place on the surfaces of the mirror painting, a fixed signal, an image 'snapped' at a certain moment. But in my mirror paintings the image co-exists with every present moment... In my works the current time of the future is already included in the continuous mobility of the images, in the constantly renewed present of the reflection" (the artist quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Centre, Pistoletto, Division and Multiplication of the Mirror, 1988, p. 31). There is a curiously timeless quality to Bionda Nuda – Orizzontale: the subject seems suspended in a moment, gazing out towards some unknown future, whilst also contemplating the past. Ultimately it is a work of poetic beauty and grace that deserves to be considered as a highly significant example of the Mirror Paintings.