MILAN, ITALY.- Sotheby’s Milan will hold an auction of masterpieces from the early 1900’s Balla, Severini, Boccioni, Morandi, De Chirico and a celebrated sculpture from 1940: the imposing Cariatide in white marble by Sironi. The Postwar artists include Fontana, Tancredi, Afro, Burri, Manzoni and Schifano, as well as Boetti to Schabel.

Le Tango Argentin (Danse) is a beautiful drawing from the year 1913 by Gino Severini from the collection of Ardengo Soffici, the director of Lacerba, where it was first published that same year and received immediate praise from Marinetti for its dancing theme, which eloquently expressed the futurist heart of Severini. This is one of the artist’s most important futurist works, and it remained out of the public eye for many years until being rediscovered recently. The piece consists of India ink on paper (32cm x 24cm) and is estimated at € 100,000 -120,000.

The exhibition also includes another fine work on canvas by the Italian/Parisian painter emerging after years in an unknown location, which manages to combine “things far and near", the mask of an ancient tragedy next to the figure of his wife and two children: Visioni simultanee (Amor sacro e profano) from the year 1929, previously exhibited in the Quadriennale d’Arte in Rome in 1935 and estimated at € 250,000 – 350,000.

Two works by Balla represent the artist's pre-futurist period. The intense Paesaggio – Torri del Museo Borghese (66cm x 46cm), from the year 1905, comes from the Casa Balla (estimated at €100,000 – 150,000) and the luminous Ritratto del Signor Pisani (74.5cm x 122.5cm), the portrait of the Director of the Fine Arts and Culture Lovers Society painted around the year 1901 (estimated at € 300,000 – 400,000).

Ritratto Maschile (Male Portrait) from the year 1905 (32cm x 40.2cm) is a rare pre-futurist painting by Boccioni illustrating the Cezanne-like instinctive and sanguine search for genre characterizing the artist’s years in Rome (estimated at € 150,000 – 200,000).

Paesaggio (Landscape) from the year 1913 by Giorgio Morandi was exhibited in Rome in 1914 exactly one year after its creation, and was subsequently shown in the Venice Biennial of 1966 and the Archiginnasio of Bologna that same year (estimated at € 350,000 – 450,000).

Italian painting from the 1930’s is well represented in Natura Morta (Still Life) by Giorgio Morandi (40cm x 62cm), previously exhibited in Rome and Bologna, estimated at € 600,000 – 800,000, and in the marvelous mythological “invention” Centauro Chirone istruisce Achille, a painting from the year 1934, both scenic and mysterious at the same time. De Chirico brought this painting to New York in 1936 as he embarked upon his journey of "errant Odysseus”. The painting measures 66cm x 90cm and is estimated at € 400,000 – 600,000. It was exhibited in 1936-1937 in Philadelphia at his first American solo show and in 2005 at MART in Rovereto. De Chirico is also represented by Cavalli in riva al mare from the year 1935 (estimated at € 250,000 – 350,000) and a later work entitled Venezia (Venice) from a private collection (estimated at € 180,000 – 220,000).

The centerpiece of the catalogue consists of an important celebrated sculpture: the imposing Cariatide in white marble (height 182cm) by Mario Sironi, which we had the pleasure of viewing at the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation in Milan in the stupendous – and necessary – 2005 exhibition dedicated to Italian Sculpture of the Twentieth Century. The marble sculpture was created in 1940 and has an estimated value of € 300,000 – 400,000.

The Jucker Collection also contains Il Gineceo by Campigli, dated ‘40’ (oil on canvas, 46cm x 55cm, estimated at € 120,000 -180,000).

The Postwar paintings listed in this auction catalogue also contain: two works by Tancredi from 1958, one from a Venetian collection (Senza titolo (Untitled), 140cm x 140cm, estimated at € 160,000 – 200,000) and E il terzo giorno Dio creò la terra, previously exhibited at the Biennial of 1968, at the Besana of Milan in 1972-1973 and at PAC in Milan in 1984 (estimated value: € 150,000 – 200,000).

Santa Fè by Afro, 1964, a work exhibited numerous times, comes from Rome, and consists of oil and tempera on canvas (50cm x 60cm, estimated at € 230,000 – 330,000).

Another included work is Concetto Spaziale, Attese, consisting of 3 cuts and yellow water-based paint on canvas, estimated at € 350,000 – 400,000. This work was acquired in 1967 directly by Fontana, which since then passed down through the family to its current owner.

The catalogue also includes a work from the 1960 series entitled ‘Ferri’ by Burri, from a private Roman collection, Ferro, 50 cm x 86cm, estimated at € 400,000 – 600,000. Achrome by Manzoni, 1960, sold in London in 1991 for GBP 110.000 (approximately € 160,000, 60cm x 75cm), and today has an estimated value of € 400,000 – 600,000. The Rail on the Pole (1963) by Salvatore Scarpitta, exhibited in New York by Leo Castelli in 1964, consists of strips, belts and mixed techniques on canvas and has an estimated value of € 250,000 – 350,000.

Mappa del mondo (Map of the World) (1979) is a rare tapestry from the series Mappe (Maps) by Boetti, who first worked in Kabul in Afghanistan and then, due to the war, continued his work in Pakistan. Mappa del mondo has an estimated value of € 400,000 – 600,000 and is illustrated on the cover of the auction catalogue.

Scultura arsa dal sole by Mario Schifano measures 265cm x 265cm and dates back to 1984 with an estimated value of € 80,000 -100,000. The work by Julian Schnabel entitled Des + Gina measures “only” 214cm x 153cm (oil on canvas, estimated value € 75,000 – 85,000). Stage Evidence (Untitled) from the urethane series by Loris Cecchini dates back to the year 2000 (estimated at € 20,000 – 30,000).