Ezio Martinelli (1913 - 1980) Abstract Estate Oil Sleeping Girl Head on Pillow. Oil on wood panel, ESTATE STAMP SIGNED on verso. ESTATE STAMP: Done By Ezio Martinelli Verified by Ezio Martinelli Jr. and Josephine MarTinelli, from the estate works of Ezio Martinelli being offered in this sale. Size: 11 in. x 9 in. ASKart: ASKart: Biography from Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Inc.Born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1913, Ezio Martinelli began his formal art training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy at the age of eighteen. He then continued his studies at the National Academy of Design, New York and the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania until 1940. Over the course of the next seven years, he exhibited at numerous galleries including ACA Galleries and Peggy Guggenheim\'s Art of This Century Gallery. In 1947, he started teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. There he met and befriended colleagues Theodore Roszak and David Smith. Martinelli\'s artistic development coincided with a larger movement in American Art history, the emergence of Abstract Expressionism. Martinelli, like his contemporaries Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, is associated with the first generation of \"New York School\" abstract artists. This first group of American Abstract Expressionists, sometimes called Action Painters, is generally split between the color-field and the gestural artists, who usurped the Surrealists\' concept of automatic art. Martinelli is considered a painter in the gestural tradition. Although the Abstract Expressionists were the first group of American artists to dominate the international art scene, they were a loosely defined group who did not adhere to any particular style or theme. Rather, they were connected by shared philosophies, which were disseminated through avant-garde publications such as Tiger\'s Eye. This group was influenced by Existentialist philosophy, which emphasized the act of creation over the product of creation. Through this, like the Surrealists, they believed that the individual subconscious could be expressed through art. They also were influenced by Jung\'s theories on myth, ritual and memory and were inspired by the art of primitive cultures that were being increasingly displayed in American museums during the 1930s and 1940s. Works by Martinelli, from the late 1940s and early 1950s, show his fully developed Abstract Expressionist style.

Light general wear. Overall good. Reminder to prospecting bidders: All descriptions and condition reports are opinions based on the Auction house’s experience and do not warrant as a guarantee.The absence of a condition report does not imply that there are no condition issues with the lot. Please email us at donny@donnymaloneauctions.com with any question or additional photos.