Pino Pascali

Collection Angelo Baldassarre, Bari (acquired circa 1970)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Rome, Galleria l'Attico, Pascali: Nuove Sculture, 1966
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Mostra di Pino Pascali, 1969, p. 24, no. 24, illustrated in installation
Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Pino Pascali, 1970
Bari, Pinacoteca Provinciale, Pino Pascali, 1973

Anna d'Elia, Pino Pascali, Bari 1983, n. 72, p. 145, illustrated in installation
Exhibition Catalogue, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Pino Pascali: la reinvención del mito Mediterráneo 1961 - 1968, 2001-2, p. 32, illustrated in installation
Exhibition Catalogue, Siena, Palazzo delle Papesse and Santa Maria della Scala, De Gustibus: Collezione Privata Italia, 2002, p. 11, illustrated in installation
Anna D'Elia, Ed., Pino Pascali, Milan 2010, p. 195, no. 69, illustrated in installation (incorrect image)

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good and original condition. On one side, at the extreme bottom edge, there is a 1cm tear in the canvas, and on the other side at the extreme bottom edge there are two further tears 1cm and 3cm long. Close inspection reveals isolated networks of very thin and stable hairline cracks scattered across the surface, which are inherent to the artist's choice of media. No restoration is visible under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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Visually arresting in both scale and design, Il Dinosauro Che Emerge, executed in 1966, is a rare example of Pino Pascali's celebrated series of 'white sculptures' or finte sculture, which translated means ‘fake sculptures.’  One of originally three finte sculture to depict the body and armoured plates of a dinosaur, its sister Il Dinosauro Riposa (1966) belongs to the Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea in Rome, as does Ricostruzione del Dinosauro (1966). Playfully evoking child-like imaginings, this piece epitomises Pascali’s monumental and minimal white sculptures. Il Dinosauro Che Emerge drolly challenges the classical and Renaissance heritage by creating canvas sculptures, and by incorporating Italian visual culture into dialogue with 1960s Pop Art. Boasting an unimpeachable provenance, the present work has resided in the same Italian collection for over fourty years, and has not been exhibited publically since 1973. Fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in 1968, the untimely death of Pascali at the age of thirty-three positions this work as belonging to the very apogee of Pascali's tragically truncated oeuvre.

Il Dinosauro Che Emerge dates to a pivotal year for Pascali. His censored Le Armi show in 1965 at the Tartaruga Gallery, Rome, and its subsequent change of venue to the Gian Enzo Sperone Gallery in Turin presaged  Pascali's1966 solo show at L'Attico Gallery – a hub of the Roman arts scene – which debuted the finte sculture including the present lot. A body of work initiated in 1966, the finte sculture move away from the overtly political towards towards more natural forms and elementary materials. As such, these sculptures corresponded to a unity of feeling among many contemporary Italian artists, one defined in 1967 by Germano Celant as Arte Povera. Sculpturally substantial and immaculately white, Il Dinosauro Che Emerge’s surface evokes the purity and solidity of alabaster or Carrara marble, yet is actually composed of canvas stretched over light wooden ribs. Pascali was indebted to Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani and Alberto Burri for their attempts to unite canvas and sculpture, and their unorthodox processes. Pascali's challenge to tradition is evident in his resistance to classification:  "I pretend to make sculptures, but so that they don't become the sculptures that they claim to be. I want them to become something light, to be what they are, which doesn't explain a thing" (the artist quoted in: Carla Lonza, Autoritratto, Milan,1969, p. 355). 

Monochrome and with precisely delineated silhouettes, the clean lines and uncomplicated form of Il Dinosauro Che Emerge shares an affinity with the concise metonymic language of the comic book – a style  popularised by Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings and by Claes Oldenburg’s early soft-sculptures of quotidian objects. Undoubtedly influenced by popular culture, one source especially relates to Il Dinosauro Che Emerge: the B.C. comic strip by Johnny Hart, first published in Italy in 1965 (and in America in 1958). Set in prehistoric times, the strip chronicles the adventures and mishaps of cavemen who live alongside and befriend anthropomorphised animals from a range of different geologic eras, such as dinosaurs, apteryx, reptiles and birds. Following Pascali’s debut exhibition of the finte sculture in 1966, Italian critics immediately noted the parallels, beginning with Dario Micacchi in December of that year, in an article entitled: Pascali: The Pet Cemetery. A B.C. dinosaur strongly recalls the present work, confirming that American Pop – the first major exhibition of which in Italy opened in Venice in 1964 – was already an influence on Pascali.

Pascali responded by emulating mass culture, but embuing a uniquely Italian identity into the subject matter. B.C. was American, but its content was prehistoric, far removed from contemporary advertising, consumerism and television. Pascali once described Italy as “a civilization which on a technological level is behind with respect to the Americans, so that a direct action between man and material is made” (Anna D’Elia, Pino Pascali, Milan 2010, p. 122). Appropriately, the finte sculture represent prehistoric animals, with an emphasis on Marine creatures – a nod to Pascali’s upbringing on the Adriatic coastal cliffs at Polignano a Mare – such as whales, dolphins and sharks, and fantastical reptilian creatures like dragons and dinosaurs whose appearances delight the popular imagination. Here the term ‘fake’ or finte invites a more nuanced reading as in ‘fictional’ or ‘make-believe’, as the animal shape is always part of a concealed whole which is left to imagine. A further group of finte sculture depict pure nature, such as oceans or bamboo, referencing the “direct” contact between man and the earth that was no longer possible for American artists.

Employing the craftsmanship acquired from studying theatre design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, the highly original shape of Il Dinosauro Che Emerge calls to mind bespoke film and stage props, which moreover share a monumental scale and lightweight construction. This theatrical quality that Pascali integrated with great humour and irony is embodied in the title of the present work, which translates to ‘The Dinosaur Emerges’ – implying that the sculpture exists in motion and is rising through the gallery floor. Contemporary Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, equally known for deploying wit whilst pushing the material bounds of art, has cited Pascali as a formative influence writing: “Together with Alighiero and Boetti, Pascali is one of my favourite people in contemporary art. I like him so much that I think he might not be just one artist but actually two different persons, Pino e Pascali” (Maurizio Cattelan, “Doctor Strangelove” in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Gagosian Gallery, Pino Pascali, 2006, p. 9).

The rising star of the Roman art world in the mid-1960s, Pino Pascali’s remarkable but short career reached its zenith upon the production of Il Dinosaure Che Emerge and its finte sculture companions. The only recorded dinosaur piece from this series still in a private collection, its appearance for public sale is an incredibly rare occasion. Immaculately designed, replete with the artist’s intellect and personality, and recording a key moment in Italian contemporary art, the present work epitomises the best of Paolini’s oeuvre.