Domenico Gnoli

Galerie Jan Krugier, Geneva,

Private Collection, Geneva

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Geneva, Galerie Jan Krugier, Domenico Gnoli, 1970, p. 14, no. 25, illustrated

Darmstadt, Kunsthalle der Stadt Darmstadt, Domenico Gnoli, 1973, p. 9, no. 31, illustrated in colour

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Gnoli, 1973, n.p., no. 36, illustrated in colour

Paris, Centre National d'Art Contemporain; and Brussels, Palais des Beaux- Arts, Domenico Gnoli, 1973-74, p. 53, illustrated

Geneva, Galerie Jan Krugier, Domenico Gnoli: Peintures, dessins, gravures et sculptures, 1996, p. 47, illustrated in colour 

Lucio Carluccio, Domenico Gnoli, Lausanne 1974, p. 123, illustrated

Vittorio Sgarbi, Gnoli, Milan 1983, p. 222, no. 168 (text) 

Yannick Vu, Domenico Gnoli a Mallorca 1963-70, Palma 2006, p. 185, no. 29, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate although the overall tonality is less saturated in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals a small spot of retouching to the extreme right edge approximately 10cm up from the bottom left corner.
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Scarpa vista da dietro plays a crucial role in Domenico Gnoli’s extraordinary yet tragically curtailed artistic history. Masterfully depicting the alluring view from the back of a black stiletto, the present work is an exceptional example from a series of five works that illustrate the outside of women’s shoes in close cropped detail. Today three are housed in the illustrious international collections of the Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne; and the Van-der-Heydt Museum, Wuppertal.

This strong sexy image of a black patent stiletto epitomises Gnoli’s oeuvre. The composition is dominated by the undulating curves of the shoe’s heel; flattened in towering foreshortened perspective and echoed in the delicate decorations of distant wallpaper. Through the glinting sheen of shiny leather, Gnoli fetishises the banality of footwear, and transfixes the viewer’s gaze upon an object from everyday life. Throughout his career, he sought to shift our perception of the mundane, documenting that which is habitually overlooked, and capturing unique facets of the 1960s quotidian from an idiosyncratically magnified perspective. Through a metamorphosis of the ordinary into an abstract synergy of texture and pattern, Gnoli instils this commonplace object with a mood of ineffable uniqueness.

As the son of an art historian, Gnoli’s life as an artist was preordained: “I was born knowing that I would be a painter; because my father; an art critic, always presented painting as the only acceptable thing. He pointed me towards classical Italian painting, against which I rebelled soon enough. However I never lost a Renaissance sense of taste and craft” (Domenico Gnoli quoted in: Yannick Vu, Domenico Gnoli a Mallorca 1963-70, Palma 2006, p. 32). With his own assertion of his Italian heritage in mind and his unique ability to harmonise an analytical description of details with dream-like reality, Gnoli’s work was often linked to the classical tradition of painting extending from the Quattrocento as far as Morandi, De Chirico, and Carrà. Meanwhile, the curvilinear composition of Scarpa vista da Dietro calls to mind the vertiginous visual effects of works by Op artist Bridget Riley.

However, despite these classical and modern connotations, his works remained utterly unique. The profound attention to detail and distinct perception of reality that has defined Gnoli’s practice stood in complete contrast to the general trends towards an art that rejected any element of figuration and promoted an unrestrained expression. As pointed out by Achille Bonito Oliva: “For Gnoli the figure is the focal point of art, and holds the central position of language, as bearer of the intention and desire of the power of the imaginary” (Achille Bonito Oliva quoted in: ibid., p. 16). He found his enlarged and abstracted details of everyday life to be the ideal vehicle to explore and reinvigorate figurative traditions, staying true to his artistic heritage yet establishing an entirely new creative expression. His corpus is thus imbued with an air of timelessness, surpassing conventional limitations of era or decade to project a singular beauty of figure, form and detail.