Afro

Collezione privata, Roma
Collezione privata, Milano

Mario Graziani, Afro Catalogo Generale Ragionato Dai documenti dell'Archivio Afro, Roma 1997, p. 170, n. 378, illustrato a colori

This work appears to be in very good condition. Under UV light is visible a tiny retouching by the centre of the upper margin.
"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."

“Penso spesso così d’essere un pittore di storie. Se i miei sentimenti più profondi, i miei ricordi, i miei giudizi sulle cose, le mie insofferenze e persino i miei errori e terrori si condensano nell’andamento di una linea, nella luminosità di un tono, sento che il mistero con cui la mia intera vita sfocia nella pittura può essere inteso all’inverso e permettere alle immagini della pittura di risalire fino alle origini della mia vita.
[...] Io spero che nelle mie pitture circoli un presentimento, una speranza, come di un’alba. Vorrei che la mia pittura recasse un’ allusione sempre più chiara a un mondo percorso da passioni, e cominciasse a rivelare il profilo sempre più nitido di un territorio aperto  - ingenuamente – alle corse, ai dolori, e alle feste umane. Penso di contribuire così all’idea di una pittura ove nella certezza della pura forma le sensazioni delle cose, i simboli della realtà che mai vennero meno, tornino a scaldarsi di un sentimento dimenticato.”

"I frequently think that I’m a painter of stories. If my deeper feelings, my memories, my judgments about things, my intolerances and even my mistakes and fears condense in a trend of a line, in the brightness of a tone, I feel that the mystery in which my whole life leads in painting can be understood at the inverse and allows at the images of the paintings to go back to the origins of my life.
[..] I hope that in my paintings circulates a presentiment, a hope, like a dawn. I would like that my painting transmits a stronger allusion to a world driven by passions, and begins to reveal the ever-clearer profile of an open land - naively - to running, to pain, and to human jubilees. I think I’m contributing in this way to the idea of ​​a painting where, in the conviction of pure form, the sensations of the things, the symbols of reality that never came less, will be warmed up by a forgotten feeling."

Afro