(Venice 1907–1990)
Nero e giallo, 1959, signed and dated, oil on paper laid down on wood, 66.5 x 47 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Archivio Santomaso, Galleria Blu, Milan

Provenance:
Alitalia Collection
Sale Finarte, Asta della Collezione Alitalia, Rome, 8 December 2009, lot 132
Sale Farsetti, Prato, 28 November 2014, lot 405 (certificate of provenance available)
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Rome, Santomaso, Galleria Pogliani, 28 November - 20 December 1959, mentioned in the exh. cat. (with wrong medium)

Literature:
L. Alfieri, Santomaso. Catalogue raisonné 1931–1974, Alfieri,
Venice 1975, no. 318 (with wrong medium)

The great achievements of the Alitalia airline between 1960 and 1961 also comprise the exact period in which the nucleus of the entire collection was formed. The idea of bringing works of art on board aircraft was Corrado Cagli’s, who had to garner the support of engineer Bruno Velani. He had two clear objectives: to make the flight more pleasant by stimulating the traveller's aesthetic sensibilities and to disseminate Italian artistic culture abroad. Cagli, helped by his friend and gallery owner Bruno Herlitzka, directly commissioned some of the paintings exhibited in the aircraft from the most talented young artists.

[...] Taken as a whole, the collection constitutes a rare compendium of what was happening mainly between 1954 and 1962, thus documenting a good part of the major trends in the Italian art world (Burri, Fontana, Gruppo degli Otto, Forma 1, etc.).
(Cfr. Finarte, Asta della Collezione Alitalia, Rome, 8 December 2009)