Giorgio Morandi

Pietro Rollino, Rome (acquired by 1954)
Galleria Annunciata, Milan
Acquired from the above by the father of the present owner circa 1960s

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Giorgio Morandi, 1954, no. 48, illustrated in the catalogue
London, New Burlington Galleries, Giorgio Morandi, 1954, no. 45, illustrated in the catalogue
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Giorgio Morandi / Giacomo Manzu, 1956, no. 38

Lamberto Vitali, Giorgio Morandi Pittore, Milan, 1964, illustrated in colour pl. 175
Lamberto Vitali, Morandi, Dipinti, Catalogo generale, 1948-1964, Milan, 1983, vol. II, no. 622, illustrated n.p.

The canvas is unlined. An area outside the artist's composition, along the extreme edges, has been executed by another hand, which is not disturbing to the naked eye and visible under ultra-violet light. Otherwise this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although richer and less warm in the original.
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The relationship between form, colour and perception are recurring concerns in Morandi’s work. Natura Morta of 1948 is a marvellous example of the artist’s extraordinary committed artistic project and displays a playful experimentation with colour in its accent of bright green and orange, punctuating his celebrated muted palette. A modern day Poussin, Morandi is the ultimate choreographer of objects and colour harmonies, creating dramatic depths of focus on a single plane. His still-lifes offer a fascinating insight into the viewer’s relationship with everyday objects, emphasising the significance of our perception in understanding the surrounding world and the nuances of our phenomenological experience. As theorised by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, our perception with the surrounding world is a primary means of understanding and gaining consciousness of our existence. Morandi’s works are deeply rooted in revealing such an awareness and considered together, they create a narrative of perceptive experience in all its sublime subtlety.

Such concepts have greatly influenced contemporary artists such as Robert Irwin. Irwin expands upon the relationship between figure and background in Morandi’s paintings, in his remarks that: 'even with the figurative elements, there were cases where his ground actually got in front of the figures or in many cases couched them in so intimately that there was no separating the two. Physically he carved a space for each one of these elements, where the amount of space left by the so-called ground was exactly that which the object occupied, so that it was as if the air had taken on substance’ (quoted in Lawrence Weschler, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin, 1982, pp. 60-61).