Sick of Sculpture - Autograph

Autograph Letter Signed by arturo Martini to Gaetano Chiurazzi 

Milan, January 25th 1938. One page, single-sided. on letterhead paper " Nuovo indirizzo -Via Jacopo della Quercia, 7, Milano". in Italian. Excellent condition, with minor aging signs.

This is an amazing greeting letter by the Italian artist Arturo Martini ( treviso, 1889 - Milan, 1947) to the Italian gallerist, Gaetano Chiurazzi (Naples,1899- Rome,1967), revealing he was "sick of sculpture" and soon he would take his bronzes at the famous "Chiurazzi Showcase", in Via del Babbuino.

The background:

In 1933 Arturo martini settled in Milan, as this letter reveals in the heading "new address". Here he holds a solo show at the Gallery of Modern Art. This is the place and the period in which he experiments new techniques and materials such as wood, stone, clay and bronze, participating in major national exhibitions. H e creates monumental sculptures: the giant plaster of Moses saved from the waters, six meters high, exhibited at the Milan Triennale in 1933; La sete (1934), in stone, memory of the casts of Pompeii; the bronze of Athena (1935), five meters high; The dead of Bligny would startle ( 1936), inspired by Mussolini's speech against economic sanctions after the occupation of Ethiopia in 1935; The Lion of Judah (1936), dedicated to the victory over Ethiopia; Corporate Justice , destined for the Palazzo di Giustizia in Milan; The Sforza Group (1938-39), work destined for the Niguarda Ca 'Granda Hospital in Milan.

Discover More About Arturo Martini's Production Here!

Gaetano Chiurazzi (Naples, 1899-1967)

Better known as Tanino, in 1925 he was sent to Rome by his father to manage the family foundry, as well as to take care of the exhibition hall in via del Babuino. His interest shifted from bronzes to painting. The result was a change in the character of the art gallery, which began to exhibit towards the end of the 1930s, alongside the classical bronzes, paintings by painters of the Roman school, until after the Second World War it became a painting gallery and thus becoming one of the best known in Rome as the "Chiurazzi Showcase". Chiurazzi here welcomed numerous exhibitions by contemporary artists, such as Maccari, De Pisis, Mafai, Raphael, D. Cooper, Levi, Cagli, Morandi, Carrà, Soffici, De Chirico, Sironi, Rosai. A great connoisseur of art, especially lover of figurative art, around the 1950s he also opened his gallery to abstract works of art by G. Dorazio, A. Perilli, G. Turcato, C. Accardi, T. Scialoia . It also welcomed works by foreign painters including S. Dalì, J. Ensor, M. Ernst, C. Pernieke, E. L. Kircimer. His activity, his knowledge in the artistic field, his personality together with his character led C. to befriend contemporary painters, especially with De Pisis, but also with exponents of the literary world including in particular G. Comisso , G. Ungaretti, A. Palazzeschi, L. De Libero.