Paolo Scheggi

Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)

Private Collection (thence by descent from the above)

Sale: Christie’s, London, The Italian Sale, 18 October 2013, Lot 62

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, POSTWAR: Protagonisti Italiani, 2013 

Eva Ogliotti and Ruggero Canova, La nerezza del nero, Treviso 2013, p. 116, illustrated 

Colour: The colour in the printed catalogue is fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals minor canvas draw to the top left corner and a few short rub marks towards the centre of the composition and another towards the top right corner. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

The present work is a stunning example of Paolo Scheggi’s celebrated Intersuperficie series. Existing in the field between sculpture and painting, Scheggi’s works purport the idea of painting-as-object by stressing the physicality of the canvas itself. Variously shaped superimposed planes, with soft oval apertures, this work evokes an intriguing interplay between space and light, a contrast of void and form. Executed in 1965, Intersuperficie nera comes from the most successful period of Scheggi’s career. During this year the artist joined the Nove Tendencije movement and began to exhibit with figures from Zero and Nul, which facilitated the growth of his international reputation beyond Italy. Today his works are included in many prestigious permanent collections, from Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome and Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice to Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich and Galerie der Stadt in Stuttgart.

A paragon of Scheggi’s distinct artistic production, the volumetric overlapping of canvases and studied placement of cavernous voids in Intersuperficie nera results in a balanced composition that draws the viewer into its intricate ovoid spaces. As light hits the canvas, deep shadows consume the jet black surface, an effect that immediately recalls the infinite darkness of space. As with Scheggi’s most important works, Intersuperficie nera moves beyond the traditional concept of painting and takes the medium into an utterly new dimension. Echoing contemporaneous explorations into the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, and coinciding with the spatial explorations of his contemporary Lucio Fontana, Scheggi’s artistic vocabulary reflects the ground-breaking artistic and scientific developments of his time. With this radical move away from the two-dimensionality of the picture plane towards an art that would render a new dimension, he has aligned himself with some of the key players of the Italian avant-garde.

Having moved to Milan in 1961, Scheggi was instantly enthralled by this vibrant and artistically effervescent city. It was here that he met the radical Italian artists Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi who had pioneered an art that challenged the basic tenets of artistic production and traditional constraints of two-dimensionality. Hereafter, Scheggi was inspired to inaugurate his own investigations into real and virtual space. Alongside luminaries such as Fontana, Castellani and Bonalumi, Scheggi’s work was included in a discussion by the prominent Italian critic Gillo Dorfles on the Pittura Oggetto movement. Artists of this movement, Dorfles commented, went beyond the figurative and the abstract, in order to stress and explore the object-nature of paintings. The matte black surface of Intersuperficie nera, and the lack of external signifiers, confirms its status as an autonomous object in and of itself.

As a semnal figure in this fertile artistic decade, Scheggi’s canvases are firmly rooted in the history of art, interlinked with the feats of his predecessor, Fontana, who followed Scheggi’s career closely. Where Fontana’s slashed canvases encourage a metaphysical notion of looking beyond, Scheggi takes this one step further and asks the viewer to look within the canvas itself as he investigates the potential of the void. The creation of these complex spaces meant that Scheggi could explore the counterpoint of perception and spatial interpretation, a dynamic that is masterfully displayed in the present work.