 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 纽约佳士得2018.5
成交价433.25万美元
作品介绍
Morandi painted this Natura morta in 1940, employing a canvas
stretched into an oval shape, the second and final work of this
rare kind in his entire oeuvre. The previous picture in this format
is a tabletop arrangement of various vessels he completed in 1919
(Vitale, no. 50). The present oval canvas evokes a self-contained,
protected, and orderly environment, in which the artist’s
state-of-mind, like the manner in which he depicted these objects,
each of them long familiar and meaningful to him, seems calmly
centered and whole, far removed from the turmoil of the outside
world. These peaceable qualities would prove most comforting in the
years that immediately followed.
Whether this still-life was painted before or after 10 June
1940, we do not know—on that fateful day Italy entered the Second
World War as the Axis ally of Nazi Germany. Within weeks, various
cities in the north were subjected to British air raids. Bologna,
where the artist lived his entire life, was an important railway
hub that beginning in 1943 endured heavy Allied bombing. The artist
sought safety in the countryside at Grizzana, where he occupied
himself by painting some of the finest landscapes of his career. It
is difficult to find tell-tale signs of the war in the domestic
tranquility of his still-life subjects, except by way of contrast.
These pictures, filled with a humble and unassuming humanity, so
somber, silent and contemplative, stand as the very antithesis to
the spreading horror and chaos everywhere around
him.
 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 局部
The gentle character of Morandi’s work could indeed provide a
balm for the troubled spirit, as the critic Giuseppi Marchiori
recalled in 1963: “During the tragedy of conflict and oppression we
were consoled in our sorrow by the thought of the man in a room on
the Via Fondazza…Morandi was in all probability painting a picture
of bottles, lamps and dusty boxes. Amid the clamor of war his
silent and lonely steadfastness was a bulwark; it was a noble
protest of the man [who was] ‘the most out of step’ in the world”
(quoted in J. Abramowicz, Giorgio Morandi: The Art of Silence, New
Haven, 2004, p. 165).
 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 局部
Like the many Italian writers, composers, and artists who
refrained from outwardly resisting Mussolini’s Fascist state,
Morandi benefited from the government’s extensive patronage of the
arts. In 1930 his growing reputation as a painter and printmaker
won him the professor’s chair in etching at the Bologna Accademia
di Belle Arti, a position he held until his retirement in 1956. He
exhibited paintings in the Venice Biennales of 1930 and 1934;
following the latter event the critic Roberto Longhi praised him as
“one of the best Italian painters alive” (quoted in Morandi, exh.
cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2008, p. 361).
Morandi participated in the Rome Quadriennales of 1931 and 1935,
and was given a personal room to show fifty works in the 1939
Quadriennale, where he won the second prize for painting.
 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 局部
This award drew criticism from the Fascist party. Morandi’s
mundane still-life subjects and his seemingly withdrawn, private
stance did not suit their program of La Romanità—the chest-beating
emulation of ancient Rome—nor the image of Mussolini’s “The New
Man” and other espoused public ideals. Morandi was also accused of
overlooking nationalistic values while continuing to allow into his
work corrupting foreign influences; Morandi would always proudly
declare his admiration for the Frenchman Cézanne. Nor would the
Fascists forget his participation as a young man in the modernist
Valori Plastici group. The critic Giovanni Scheiwiller, in a
monograph on Morandi published in 1943, responded: “A still life
can move us because of its intrinsic qualities, for its emotional
intensity and for inexplicable mysterious reasons…His works
document the triumph of the spirit over materialism…Morandi is one
of the few privileged [artists] with the capacity to produce
paintings of pure poetry” (quoted in J. Abramowicz, op. cit., 2004,
p. 176).
The Ministry of Education, Morandi’s official employer,
included him in their large inaugural exhibition of contemporary
art held in 1941, intended to advertise the “eternal vitality of
the genius of our Italian race” (quoted in ibid., p. 177). In his
review of the show, Attilio Crespi lauded Morandi’s “aristocratic
reserve, his ability to ennoble the most humble and silent of
models…giving a solemn dignity to his paintings of objects that
Morandi elevated to the stature of symbols” (quoted in
ibid.).
 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 局部
The oval shape of the 1919 Natura morta may have been
occasioned by the end of the First World War, as a gesture
welcoming the return of peace. The reappearance of this format in
the present painting may have held a prayer for the same in 1940.
Between 1942 and 1946, Morandi employed a tondo (circular) surround
within a square sheet to contain the tabletop motifs in four
still-life etchings (Vitale, nos. 109-111 and 113). In the etched
composition Natura morta in un ovale, circa 1942, Morandi used an
elliptical shape as a window through which the viewer peers into an
unusual close-up of his chosen objects (Vitale, no. 130). Morandi’s
interest in the oval format also reflects the table in this shape
that he built and kept in his studio as prop for his still-lifes,
the curved edge of which appears in numerous
compositions.
 乔治·莫兰迪 静物 局部
“We had bought a number of contemporary Italian paintings in
1959 from the Galleria dell’Obelisco in Rome [including works by
Campigli and Muši],” David Rockefeller wrote. “Alfred Barr was
aware of our interest in them and brought to our attention this
‘Still Life’, which he had known about through Lamberto Vitale. We
had seen two Morandis that my brother Nelson had in his house in
Washington and had always liked them; thus we were pleased to be
able to acquire this work, with its unusual oval shape” (M. Potter
et al., op. cit., 1984, p. 321).
画家简介
乔治·莫兰迪（Giorgio Morandi
，1890-1964）生于意大利波洛尼亚，是意大利著名的版画家、油画家。青年时考入波伦亚艺术学院，曾经长期在这所学院担任美术教师，教授版画课程。莫兰迪既推崇早期文艺复兴大师的作品，也对此后各种流派的大胆探索有着强烈共鸣。哥特弗莱德-勃姆在他的《乔治-莫兰迪的艺术观念》一文中写道：莫兰迪在他的“形而上”时期借用了这一异质，他着迷于塞尚对想象、构成和创造的拒绝。
以上哥特弗莱德-勃姆的这段文字，对理解莫兰迪的绘画十分重要。
乔治·莫兰迪
他一生没有娶妻，可以说没有爱情，唯一有的就是他把一生都献给了他挚爱的艺术。他是一个画僧，也是一个苦行僧。艺术是他的亲人，也是他的妻子、情人。他孤寂一生，几乎没有离开过他的家乡波洛尼亚，过着简朴的生活，淡泊名利，仅仅在意大利做过一些旅行。唯一的一次出国是去苏黎世参观塞尚的画展。在20世纪艺术的喧嚣中，当其他的艺术家纷纷前往巴黎的时候，他则静静地在波罗纳的工作室里，用智慧和感觉创造自己的艺术形象。他以其高度个人化的特点脱颖而出，以娴熟的笔触和精妙的色彩阐释了事物的简约美。莫兰迪选择极其有限而简单的生活用具，以杯子、盘子、瓶子、盒子、罐子以及普通的生活场景作为自己的创作对象。把瓶子置入极其单纯的素描之中，以单纯、简洁的方式营造最和谐的气氛。平中见奇，以小见大。通过捕捉那些简单事物的精髓，捕捉那些熟悉的风景，使自己的作品流溢出一种单纯高雅、清新美妙、令人感到亲近的真诚。在立体派和印象派之间，他以形和色的巧妙妥协，找到了自己独特的画风。
作品资料
作者 乔治·莫兰迪（1890～1964）
尺寸 椭圆37.5×50cm
质地
作品分类 西画雕塑>油画
创作年代 1940年作
估价 USD 2,000,000-3,000,000
成交价 RMB 27,312,080
专场 佩吉及大卫洛克菲勒夫妇珍藏：十九及二十世纪（晚间拍卖）
拍卖时间 2018-05-08
拍卖公司 佳士得纽约有限公司
拍卖会 2018年5月拍卖会
签名、日期及题识：Morandi 1940（中下）
来源
1961年11月8日，米兰布雷拉画廊匿名拍卖，拍品编号42
已故藏家购自上述拍卖
相关文献
G. Ungaretti著《Pittori italiani
contemporanei》，博洛尼亞，1950年，第38頁，編號38（插圖）
L. Vitali著《Morandi: Catalogo generale,
1913-1947》，第1冊，米蘭，1977年，編號260（插圖）
M.Potter等著《The David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection:
European Works of Art》，第1冊，紐約，1984年
，第47及321頁，編號141（彩色插圖）
E. Tavoni著《Morandi: Disegni, catalogo
generale》，米蘭，1994年，第63頁
L. Vitali著《Morandi: Dipinti, catalogo generale,
1913-1947》，第1冊，米蘭，1994年，編號260（插圖）
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