FABRIZIO CLERICI (1913-1993)
Le grand théâtre
signed 'Fabrizio Clerici' (lower left and lower right)
gouache on paper, diptych
41 x 33.5cm (16 1/8 x 13 3/16in). each
Executed in 1947
Footnotes:
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Archivio Fabrizio Clerici.

Provenance
M. Lesage Collection, Paris; their sale, Finarte, Rome, 24 April 2008, lots 144 & 145.
Private collection, Paris.
Private collection, Rome (acquired from the above).

Exhibited
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honour Museum, Fabrizio Clerici, February 1956.
Santa Barbara, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Paintings and Watercolors by Fabrizio Clerici, 17 April – 6 May 1956.

Literature
Archivio Fabrizio Clerici (eds.), Fabrizio Clerici, nel centenario della nascita 1913-1993, Milan, 2013 (illustrated p. 169).

'Isn't Fabrizio Clerici perhaps one of the champions of the surreal realism that is a distinctive sign of the twentieth century? Akin to nature itself, Clerici achieves simplicity by means of countless details. Not a single pin is missing from this legion of angels and archangels that guard over his home. No object is admitted therein that isn't sublime, and whose presence does not burst with secrets.' - Jean Cocteau

Bonhams is delighted to present four exceptional works by the Italian artist Fabrizio Clerici encompassing his most iconic surrealist motifs and tropes recurring throughout his œuvre and providing an overview to his work. A tall and strikingly handsome man, with a collection of the finest Borsalino hats, Clerici was born in Milan in 1913 but lived in Rome for most of his life, graduating with a degree in architecture in 1937. His trained architectural eye for spatiality and perspective influenced his work as an artist, further finessed by witnessing the Eternal City's layered history and ancient ruins reminiscent of a grand romanticised past. The vestiges of Roman Renaissance and Baroque splendour somewhat imbued his works with an aura of timelessness. His unique visual language developed in art not only through his book illustrations, first begun in 1941, but also through the creation of set and costume designs, collaborating amongst others on George Bernard Shaw's 1947 adaptation of Mrs. Warren's Profession and Stravinsky's Orpheus in 1948 to huge acclaim, and forming a strong friendship with influential Hungarian choreographer Aurel Milloss. London's Daily Telegraph noted Clerici's eccentric sets as 'in fact, spaceless and timeless in their fantastic and exotic splendour' when referring to his work on Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1961 at Milan's La Scala theatre (quoted in Fabrizio Clerici, Nel centenario della nascita 1913-1993, 2013, p. 92).

Clerici's art nods to both Surrealist and Metaphysical theories, marked by his close friendships with Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini and Alberto Savinio amongst others. Befriending Jean Cocteau and Tristan Zara in Rome and Milan, he was an assiduous reader of the Surrealist publication Le Minotaure, Andrè Breton's brainchild. 'Surrealism', for Clerici 'must be seen as a continuation of metaphysical painting, which, by the way, is one of the most extraordinary expressions of painting in the XX century, an expression which is mostly Italian, that of De Chirico, Savinio, Carrà, and a certain Morandi. I adhered to that school' (ibid., p. 73). Desolate landscapes and solitary figures coexist in Clerici's universe. Desolated and almost dystopian, elongate, landscapes on the brink of destruction are evoked in Le grand théâtre dated 1947 and L'isola from 1974 (lots 44 and 47). Figures from the 1944 series Too seen, too much felt and La grande fame, (lots 45 and 46) appear in a state of despair, reflecting the horrors of war. The present works are emblematic of Clerici's skill as a fine draughtsman and painter marking him as one of the most iconic artists carrying the legacy of Surrealism in Italy.

The two exquisite drawings dated 1944 were included in Julien Levy's exhibition held at his gallery in New York the following year. The drawings were brought to New York by Peter Lindamood, a Peace Corps volunteer enlisted in the US Army and recruited in the 'Psychological Warfare Branch', a branch reserved for journalists, photographers and literary men, who sought out the Italian artists tied to Surrealism, both Giorgio de Chirico and Leonor Fini, and it was the latter with whom Clerici had a decade-long friendship and considered the leader in the Italian Surrealist movement who introduced him to Lindamood. These drawings, recalls Lindamood, are the 'few that I was able to nurse through the crushing intimacy of my barracks bag' which would be 'shown for the first time anywhere' at Levy's Gallery (op. cit., p. 44).

The roman art critic Mario Praz discusses the drawing Too seen, too much felt in his book dedicated to Clerici and his chapter on these Capricci series, to be 'the most potent expression of a mass state of mind that I have found in recent years. The assuredness of the line, akin to those of the greatest masters, makes this work a memorable document of the post-war phase of life and art in Italy' (quoted in Bellezza e Bizzarria, Milan, 1960, p. 167). Both drawings can be interpreted as touching reminders of the frailty of human life.

With characters appearing to reflect on the state of mankind, the drawings act today as a strong reminder that on 4 June 1944 the American troops entered Rome, finally liberating the city. Empty sardine cans and a ripped intense portrait by Sicilian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, Condottiero, (Louvre, Paris) permeate the scenes. The series represents Clerici's skills as a draughtsman, so much so that a work in the series, Duet for Harp and 'Cello, was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Le grand théâtre diptych, executed in 1947 in tempera, showcases another of Clerici's recurring motifs, the empty theatre, dominated by uneasy hovering scaffoldings eerily threatening to topple at any moment. Painted in Milan, it is part of a series of works called Processi, which had been admired by Dalí at Clerici's Roman studio. L'isola from 1974 acts as an homage to Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Bocklin's series of masterpieces The Isle of the Dead, painted between 1880 and 1901. Of Bocklin, Clerici would expand 'resuming Bocklin, after De Chirico, was a way for me to prolong the cult of metaphysical art, beyond the recognised names. I always thought that metaphysics is a characteristic of Italian painting [...] my formation as an architect fatally brings my painting to the metaphysics of space' (op. cit., 2013, p. 56). This ensemble of works provides a fascinating overview of some of the most iconic periods of Clerici's work, one of the most interesting intellectuals and artists of the 20th Century in Italy.
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