6 Incisioni. 6 Block Prints by Enrico Bordoni, b.1904

Enrico Bordoni, b.1904
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

6 Incisioni. 6 Block Prints

Complete set of six original blockprints printed in colours. c.1950. Each signed in pencil. Each numbered (46) from the edition of 100. Published by Galleria del Grattacielo, Milan, c.1950. Together with the original portfolio with a pencil signed dedication from Bordoni 'Per A.B. Saffe'. Rare.

Very fine strong impressions with excellent fresh colours. On pale cream wove paper. Generally excellent condition; the slightest signs of old mounting, and faint traces of soiling on one sheet.
Full margins. Sheets: 19 x 13ins. Images approx: 16 1/8 x 9 1/4inch. (410x235mm)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

This series of six colour woodcuts is an outstanding and rare example of the pure abstraction of Italian avant-garde art in the period immediately after the War. Enrico Bordoni was in the forefront of the movement which brought concepts of pure spare form, developed from an amalgam of the ideas of geometric constructivism and the more sensual anthropomorphic elements in the work of artists like Arp, to widespread public notice in Italy from the late 1940's.

Bordoni's earliest work had been based on landscape and naturalist themes but as a result of periods spent in Paris before the War by 1948 he had transformed his style to become one of the foremost Italian exponents of a spare abstract purism. His work was featured at the Venice Biennale on almost every occasion from the end of the War until the early 1960's.

Italian abstract art of the immediate post-war period has a very particular and individual character, combining intellectual asceticism with a quality of emotional lyricism. This is epitomised by the work of Bordoni, and very apparent in the combination of the forms and the very subtle colours in this set of woodcuts. Creative printmaking by the leading painters of this period of Italian art is very uncommon, and it is particularly rare to find a set of works like those above complete and with the original portfolio intact.