Giorgio Morandi

Galleria del Milione, Milan
Galleria La Bussola, Milan
Galleria Annunciata, Milan
Galleria Internazionale, Milan
Galleria Tega, Milan
Galleria Dante Vecchiato, Padova
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2004

Lamberto Vitali, Morandi. Catalogo generale, Volume secondo 1948-1964, Milan, 1983, n.p., no. 1303, illustrated

The canvas is not lined. There appear to be no signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is a pinhead sized loss to the centre of the extreme left edge. There is a tiny spot of surface dirt to the lower edge of the central pot, and a minute studio stain to the upper right corner. Otherwise, this work is in overall very good condition.
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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."

'The Bolognese hermit should no longer be thought of as a little provincial master who produces archaic perfections, but as a universal artist, whose precise voice is in tune with the deep tremors of his time. His Franciscan serenity is often conquered over stormy turmoil. He possesses the wisdom of another time, but also the modern restlessness, the laceration between being and appearing. His miracle is that of having been able to achieve, on an intimate and delicate level, the difficult balance between the outpouring of reality and the control of reason, between objectivity that hides and subjectivity that urges and pushes.'
JEAN LEYMARIE

The tranquility of Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings serves as the perfect antidote to the distracted mind of the modern man. The present work is a beautiful example of Morandi's lifelong project to try to breathe new life into a limited group of objects. He lived in amongst his subject matter of bottles, jugs and vases, and was extraordinarily sensitive to the subtle differences he found in them. Different lighting, different arrangement, different contexts, and different seasons: all these things completely altered Morandi's perception, and depiction, of these familiar everyday objects. To dismiss them as inanimate objects would be to ignore Morandi's belief that these objects had their own innate characters, their own way of interacting with each other, and their own vibrations. Without this belief, Morandi's inexhaustible project would have been just that, exhausting. Instead, he transformed his artistic project into a profound celebration of nuance and of stillness.

Natura Morta, 1963, is painted with the artist's characteristic limited palette of very pale greys, whites and brown. Very often with Morandi's oeuvre, the more understated the palette, the more successful the work. In his love for the simple, near-abstract forms of jugs and bottles, as well as his muted palette, Morandi's paintings invite comparison with those of that other master of subtlety, Ben Nicholson. When so many other artists reacted to the Second World War with anger and intensity of expression, Morandi and Nicholson both appreciated the value of, and need for, meditative reflection. There is also a shared universality to their works, a sense of time having been suspended. The present work, a quiet composition of four objects arranged on a table, is an ode to light, tone and form, and, above all, to timeless grace.