(Rome 1900–1972)
Superficie n. 149, 1956, signed and dated; signed, titled and dated again on the reverse, oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cm, framed

We are grateful to Archivio Capogrossi, Rome for the kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work

Provenance:
Galleria d’Arte Selecta, Rome (stamp on the reverse)
F. Russoli Collection, Milan
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Rome, Galleria Selecta, 1956
Paris, Galerie Rive Gauche, 1956, exh. cat. no. 18
Berlin, Fünf italienischte Maler der Galleria La Bussola, Turin und Rom, 1957
Wuppertal, Städtisches Museum, Fünf italienische Maler, 1957, exh. cat. with ill. (label on the reverse)

Literature:
G. C. Argan, Capogrossi, Editalia, Rome 1967, p. 29, p. 164 no. 235 with ill.

The theme he discovers - this claw, this hand, this trident, this gallows - is already a style. He bends it to his moods, imprints his fantasies on it, calms it or exacerbates it, unleashes it, puts it to sleep, haunts it, indulges it. There is nothing he cannot make it do, nothing he cannot make it say.

One theme: the whole world.

Since Mondrian, I have never seen such an intimate and tenacious union of personal style. Allowing for due differences, of course, as the contrast between the two is remarkable. Capogrossi is infinitely richer than Mondrian, who is infinitely deeper. One established solid and simple foundation from which the other can profit, build upon, and afford a thousand fantasies.
Michel Seuphor in the catalogue of the exhibition Capogrossi, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan 1953