Lot 37: FRANCESCO VEZZOLI

Il Bandito: Anna Magnani Loved Amedeo Nazzari
This work is unique.

image: 16 x 11 1/2 in. (40.6 x 29.2 cm) <br>frame: 22 3/8 x 18 1/2 in. (56.8 x 47 cm)

black and white laser print on canvas with metallic embroidery, in artist's frame

2002

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Italian provocateur, Francesco Vezzoli, uses petit-point embroidery to edit, reimagine, and even defile the well-known portraits of beautiful Hollywood celebrities. He is best known for his serigraphs in which details of the images are hand-stitched in vibrant and shocking colors, which greatly contrast with the monochromatic backgrounds laid on canvas. Sometimes with sparkling eye shadow, or in the case of the present lot, stitched tears, Vezzoli infuses the famed images with wit, unearthing the imperfections and nostalgia of fleeting glamour. His work plays into a well known fascination and critique of the decadence of celebrity, a tradition pioneered by Andy Warhol.

<em>Il Bandito (Anna Magnani Loved Amedeo Nazzari),</em> 2002, portrays a famous Italian beauty silk-screened on canvas and adorned with delicately embroidered tear drops. The image derives from the original cover of the 1946 drama <em>Il Bandito,</em> directed by Alberto Lattuada and starring Anna Magnani alongside Amedeo Nazzari and Carla Del Poggio. Magnani was internationally recognized for her beauty, ferocity, and talent as a young starlet in Italian Cinema. Here, Vezzoli has removed her portrait from the glossy poster in which she is originally depicted amending her coiffure, and shows a close-crop of her angelic face. Slipping down the smooth surface of the serigraph are tiny white, brightly outlined tears. Here we see a true portrait of Anna Magnani, without the glamour and fame by which she was surrounded her entire life. She once revealed, &#8220;My nights are appalling. I wake up in a state of nerves and it takes me hours to get back in touch with reality.&#8221; (Anna Magnani in J. Kobler &#8220;Tempest on the Tiber&#8221;, <em>Life</em>, 13 February 1950). The present lot,<em> Il Bandito (Anna Magnani Loved Amedeo Nazzari),</em> 2002, offers a new portrait, perhaps an even truer one of the famed beauty.