Giorgio Morandi

Exhibited by Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m.

Material oil on canvas

Dimensions 37 × 38.5 cm

Place of Creation Bologna

Price Price Upon Inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

The work, painted in 1953 by Giorgio Morandi, one of the greatest italian masters of painting in the 20th Century, belongs to the artist’s full maturity, a phase in which his visual language had become fully defined and unmistakable. During these years, Morandi focused almost exclusively on the theme of the still life, selecting bottles, vases, boxes, and everyday containers arranged and rearranged in endless subtle variations.

By 1950s his painting had reached a particularly refined equilibrium: the compositions are structured according to a rigorous geometric order, yet this order is never rigid. Instead, it is animated by delicate tonal modulations and subtle shifts of light. The chromatic range is restrained and carefully balanced - earth tones, greys, muted pinks and a touch of blue - through which space is constructed by gradual tonal transitions rather than sharp contrasts. The objects seem to emerge slowly from the background, suspended in a silent atmosphere that eliminates any narrative or anecdotal element.

Rather than emphasizing scale, the painting conveys a sense of intimacy through its measured proportions and carefully calibrated balance. Morandi orchestrates the arrangement so that each object occupies a precise position within the pictorial field, creating a subtle interplay between solids and voids, proximity and distance. The spatial dialogue unfolds quietly across the surface, guided by tonal relationships rather than by linear perspective.

The progressive rarefaction of space and the reduction of elements result in an image of striking essentiality, in which everyday objects are stripped of contingency and transformed into a contemplative meditation on form, balance, and presence.

This Still Life thus belongs to a period of complete artistic awareness, when Morandi - far removed from the rhetoric of the avant-garde - pursued a solitary and coherent investigation that established him as one of the most original and significant voices in twentieth-century European painting.

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Provenance

Galleria Il Milione, acquired directly from the artist in 1953, Milan; Augusto Giovanardi, acquired from the above in 1953, Milan; Galleria Il Milione, acquired on 8th June 1960, Milan; Private Collection, Monaco.

Literature

Exhibited:
A.S. Pushkin Museum of Figurative Arts, Moscow / State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg & Moscow, Giorgio Morandi, 1973, no. 21, ill; Musee Cantini, Marseille, Giorgio Morandi. 1890-1964, texts by Carlo Bertelli, 13 April - 18 June 1985, no. 46; Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Giorgio Morandi: 1890 1990. Mostra del Centenario, Electa, Milano, 12 May – 2 September 1990, no. 125 p. 191, ill. col; Palazzo Reale, Milan, Morandi e Milano, catalogue by Stefano Zuffi, with texts by Maurizio Calvesi, Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua, Mercedes Garberi, Elena Pontiggia, Rosalba Tardito and Lamberto Vitali, Electa Editrice, 22 November 1990 - 6 January 1991, no. 73, ill. col; Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid / Centro IVAM Julio González, Valencia, Morandi. Exposición Antologica, promoted by Centro IVAM Julio González and Museo Morandi, Bologna, with the patronage of Fondazione Bancaja, curated by Juan Manuel Bonet, Toms Llorens and Marilena Pasquali, 1 June - 5 September 1999 / 24 September - 5 December 1999, no. 53, p. 151, ill. col; ate Modern, Bankside, London / Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Giorgio Morandi. Dans l'ecart du reel, curated by Donna de Salvo and Matthew Gale, Tate Publishing, 22 May - 12 August 2001 / 4 October 2001 - 6 January 2002, no. 24 p. 86, ill. col; Guggenheim Museo Bilbao, A Backward Glance: Giorgio Morandi and the Old Masters, curated by Petra Joos, in collaboration with Giovanni Casini, 12 April - 6 October 2019, no. 56 p. 172, ill.

Literature:
Lamberto Vitali, curated by, Morandi. Dipinti, Catalogo Generale, 1948 - 1964, vol. II, Milan, Electa Editrice, n. 868, ill;