(Genoa 1922–1986 Milan)
Il gomitolo, 1961, signed and dated; signed, dated and titled on the reverse, oil on canvas, 200 x 300 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio, Milan (label on the reverse)
VAF Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main, no. 657 MART, Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Paris, Scanavino, ouevres récentes, Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporaine 1962, exh. cat. no. 9 with ill.
Milan, Pittura a Milano dal 1954 al 1964, Palazzo Reale 1964, exh. cat. pp. 113–117
Milan, Studio Bellora 1969 Milan, Scanavino, Galleria del Naviglio 1970 Venice, Scanavino, Centro Internazionale delle Arti e del Costume, Palazzo Grassi, 26 July-16 September 1973, exh. cat.
p. 32, no. 12 with ill. Milan, Omaggio a Scanavino, Galleria del Naviglio, 6 October-
7 November 1988, exh. cat. with ill.
Mannheim, Kunsthalle 2002
Rovereto, Un secolo di arte italiana. Lo sguardo del collezionista-Opere della Fondazione VAF, MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, 2 July -20 November 2005, exh. cat., p. 207
Graz, Viaggio in Italia Arte Italiana 1960–1990, Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum 2008–2009
Rovereto, La magnifica ossessione, MART-Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, 26 October 2012–6 October 2013

Literature:
G. Graglia Scanavino, C. Pirovano, Scanavino. Catalogo generale, Electa 2000, Vol. I, p. 193, no. 1961 42 with ill.
D. Ferrari (ed.), VAF Stiftung. La Collezione. Catalogo generale, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, 2012, p. 680, VAF. 657 with ill.
F. Pola (ed.), Emilio Scanavino. The tactile sign of the void, Robilant+Voena, Marsilio Edition, London 2016, no. 41 with ill.

[…] The sensitive and almost surly nature of Emilio Scanavino has led the painter towards a fantasy world where everything is secret and secretly allusive: on the canvas, modulated with great pictorial subtlety in shades of grey, screens of light and shadow are formed over which the brush runs nervously to trace out dark and mysterious images. Because the field of our inner life is itself dark and mysterious, emerging dimly to consciousness like a state of emotional tension: these images by Scanavino, solitary in infinite space, are the mirrors of his inner vibrations, revelations of secret movements of his soul, pages of an intimate and private diary. […] Scanavino’s images live in this tension between opposite poles, between anxiety and serenity, between shadow and light, between vitality and contemplation: germinating flowers or ancient relics and worn larvae, trembling cobwebs or skeletons, butterfly or bat wings…
A. Martini, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan 1961