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WORKS BY GIACOMO MANZÙ FROM THE LAMPUGNANI NIGRI, COLLECTION, MILANChristie’s is proud to present an extraordinary collection of works by Giacomo Manzù from the private collection of Arrigo Lampugnani Nigri. His mother, Alice, together with her husband, commissioned many lots from the artist, and has also been the protagonist of most of his female portraits. These works witness the friendship and the mutual respect between Lampugnani Family and the artist, and they are accompanied by documents and letters that recount their ongoing exchange of inspirations and ideas. The Lampugnani collection offers a unique panorama of Giacomo Manzù’s works, ranging from the preparatory drawings for one of his best known works, the Great Portrait of a Lady to a series of paintings that the artist created specifically for Casa Lampugnani in Milan and a few design objects. The works from the collection will be offered in the upcoming Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in Milan, New York, London and Paris.Immediately after the war, in 1946, when Milan was choked with rubble and the museums were either closed or semi-destroyed, Professor Pacchioni, then Superintendent of Monuments, decided to organize an exhibition of very important works from the shelters to show that Milan was still alive. For this reason, he planned to "kidnap" a whole floor of the building opposite the park in Corso Venezia, where we lived. This led to a big fight with my mother, and a long friendship that began with a compromise: the exhibition would open only three afternoons a week and we would provide the custodians (I have never had the opportunity of viewing so many masterpieces, alone, for so long: it was a wonderful initiation). Pacchioni, knowing my mother’s wish that the artist paint my little sister Carla, brought Manzù, who began to frequent our home. His terracotta of Carla with all her curls is still on my desk. Then Manzù began to draw my mother, [completing] almost two hundred drawings. Then came many portraits, in bronze and wax, until the Great Lady Portrait (he made three or four versions, which were later destroyed). I recovered the head of one of these from the shattered clay: Manzù told me to wet it every day, which I did diligently. Then laughingly told me that I would not have to continue for a lifetime, took it and mounted it on a marble base).At the time, Manzù had a studio in via Privata Frascati, and little money. I remember that I gave him a few lire to pay the electricity bill: at Christmas, he gave me a beautiful little Christ in bronze. Then, he stayed with us for quite some time in San Remo, where my mother was "renovating"—as we would say today—and furnishing a large villa. Manzù took it seriously. From the doorstops—vine leaves, turtles, hedgehogs—to twenty high, sculpted lampposts adorned with vine shoots, a well in red marble for the winter garden, bronze and ceramic jugs, a swing for my little sister at the gates of the villa and the design of the fence – composed of a series of panels of intertwined branches, in bronze—from wooden and bronze tables to a bench at the telephone. Many of the sculptor’s letters to my mother from that period bear witness to their great friendship and mutual respect (for Christmas 1948 Manzù gave mother a large bronze bas-relief, an initial concept for the doors of St. Peter’s in Rome, with the inscription “Come Lei si merita”—“as You deserve”). Then Manzù moved to Rome, and a few years later my mother died. I did not see Manzù for many years. Finally, on occasion of the great exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, to which I lent many works, we met again and hugged each other for a long time, with a few tears.Arrigo Lampugnani NigriWORKS BY GIACOMO MANZÙ FROM THE LAMPUGNANI NIGRI, COLLECTION, MILAN

Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991)

Danzatrice

Details

Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991)
Danzatrice
bronze with brown patina
Height: 23 5/8 in. (60 cm.)
Conceived and cast in 1953; unique

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the family of the present owner, circa 1955.

Literature

B. Grimschitz, Giacomo Manzù: Bronzeskulpturen, Aquarelle, Handreichnungen, Graphik, exh. cat., Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, 1955, no. 47 (illustrated).
C.L. Ragghianti, Giacomo Manzù: Sculptor, Milan, 1957 (illustrated, pls. 80-81).
J. Rewald, Giacomo Manzù, Salzburg, 1966, no. 80 (illustrated).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Sarah El-Tamer

sel-tamer@christies.com +1 212 636 2050

Lot Essay

This work is registered in the Archivio Giacomo Manzù.

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