Lot 38: Salvatore Scarpitta , Gunner's Mate painted bandages on shaped boards and mixed media

signed, titled and dated 1961 on the reverse painted bandages on shaped boards and mixed media

measurements 190 by 193.5cm. alternate measurements 74 3/4 by 76in.

Los Angeles, Dwan Gallery, Scarpitta , 1961
Turin, Galleria Notizie; Brescia, Studio C, Salvatore Scarpitta , 1972, no. 11, illustrated
Bagheria, Civica Galleria Renato Guttuso, Scarpitta , 1999, p. 99, no. 59, illustrated

'I Simboli Ottici Crescono: Scarpitta', in: Metro, No. 3, 1961, pp. 88-89, no. 2, illustrated
Harriet Jans and Rudi Blesh, Collage, Personalities, Concepts, Techniques, New York 1962, p. 263, no. 399, illustrated
Luigi Sansone, Salvatore Scarpitta, Catalogue Raisonné, Milan 2005, p. 184, no. 308, illustrated

Acquired directly from the artist
Thence by descent to the present owner in 1962

"I didn't have a plan, I took the canvas, I cut it, reversed it and wrapped it around the frame." (Salvatore Scarpitta in conversation with Laura Cherubini in Exhibition Catalogue, Castello di Volpaia, Splendente, 1992, p. 17) Scarpitta's artistic breakthrough came in 1957 following two critically acclaimed solo shows at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan and at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome. Rather than using the canvas ground as a support for painterly exploration, Scarpitta tore up and shredded it, defying traditional painting convention by destroying the very structure which had underpinned artistic endeavour. Collecting the frayed and tattered strips from the floor of his studio, Scarpitta used them as bandages, wrapping them in textured layers to create a rhythmical weave of overlapping bands. Suddenly the two dimensional canvas was transformed: in rejecting the illusion of space, Scarpitta had transformed his canvas into a three dimensional art object. The tension, depth and plasticity of these works revolutionised the concept of the flat canvas field, while simultaneously looking back to the great art of the past. Reminiscent of Leonardo's repeated studies of luminous folds of drapery, the bandaged canvases also engendered a discourse with Scarpitta's great Italian contemporaries. Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Alberto Burri each had their own unique dialogue with the materiality and flat surface of the canvas. Piero Dorazio took Fontana to Scarpitta's studio in 1957, later writing, 'The next year I went to visit Fontana and his studio was full of canvases with the famous slashes, which could only have been suggested by the swathing bands of Scarpitta' (Piero Dorazio quoted in Luigi Sansone, Salvatore Scarpitta: Opere 1957-1991, Milan 1998, p. 36). An introduction to Leo Castelli in Rome proved invaluable for Scarpitta's career, prompting the artist's return to New York in 1958. He was quickly recruited into Castelli's fold and, following exhibitions of works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, had his first solo show Extramurals in 1959. Willem De Kooning bought one of the works on display, and through Castelli Scarpitta also met Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and others from the Pop art crowd. The move to New York provoked a time of intense artistic activity, where he pushed his new visual language still further with a group of works based around the X, of which Gunner's Mate is an exceptional example. Rigorously structured with a geometric armature of repeated X-axes, the work is softened by the wrapped frame, swaddled in layers of torn canvas. The canvas strips have been thickened through dipping in pigment and resin, hardening into a synthetic surface animated with protrusions and recessions. Scarpitta breaks with the refined square format of previous works, instead presenting the viewer here with a dynamic arrangement rich with surface tension and sublimated meaning. The violently torn bandages are symbols of Scarpitta's decimation of the canvas, yet simultaneously they protect the frame beneath. Executed on a grand scale, Gunner's Mate shows Scarpitta to be exploring and pushing the canvas to its ultimate form as a medium for artistic expression.