Beschreibung:

Domenico Gnoli Inside of Lady's Shoe 1969 acrylic and sand on canvas 180 x 120 cm (70 7/8 x 47 1/4 in.) Signed, titled and dated 'D. Gnoli "Inside of Lady Shoe" 1969' (sic) on the reverse. Further signed and dated 'D. Gnoli 69' on the reverse.
Provenance Private Collection, Rome Christie's, London, Contemporary Art Part I, 2 December 1993, lot 44 Private Collection, Germany Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Domenico Gnoli in his First American Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures, 3-27 December 1969, no 23 Darmstadt, Kunsthalle der Stadt Darmstadt, Domenico Gnoli 14 July-19 August 1973, no. 54 Rotterdam, Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Domenico Gnoli 14 September-4 November 1973, no. 51 Paris, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Domenico Gnoli 16 November 1973-7 January 1974 Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Domenico Gnoli 17 January-17 February 1974 Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürnberg am Marientor, Schuhwerke - Aspekt zum Menschenbild, 28 May-26 September 1976 Rome, Galleria Giulia, Domenico Gnoli April 1981, no. 8 Verona, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Achille Forti, Domenico Gnoli Antologica, 1982-1983 Lausanne, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective Domenico Gnoli 1983 Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Domenico Gnoli (1933-1970), 21 February-12 April 1987, no. 66 Madrid, Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Domenico Gnoli 1990, no. 8 Tokyo, Wante Museum, Italia Anni '60, 1992-1993 Literature Domenico Gnoli in his First American Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures, exh. cat., Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, no. 23, p. 21 Domenico Gnoli exh. cat., Kunsthalle der Stadt Darmstadt, Darmstadt, 1973, no. 54, p. 76 Domenico Gnoli exh. cat., Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, 1973-1974, p. 57 (illustrated) L. Carluccio, Domenico Gnoli Lausanne, 1974, p. 158 (illustrated) Schuhwerke - Aspekt zum Menschenbild, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Nürnberg am Marientor, Nuremberg, 1976, p. 110 Dalla natura all’arte, dall’arte alla natura, exh. cat., XXXVIII Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 1978, p. 258 Domenico Gnoli exh. cat., Galleria Giulia, Rome, 1981, no. 8, pp. 16 and 68 (illustrated) Domenico Gnoli Antologica, exh. cat., Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Achille Forti, Verona, 1982, p. 103 F. Maria Ricci, Gnoli, Milan, 1983, no. 195, pp. 162-63 and 223, (illustrated) Domenico Gnoli (1933-1970), exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, 1987, no. 66, p. 29, n.p (illustrated) Domenico Gnoli exh. cat., Fundación Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, 1990, no. 8 and 40, pp. 34-35, 113 and 150 (illustrated) Y. Vu, Domenico Gnoli a Mallorca / in Majorca 1963-1970, Palma, 2006, no. 49, pp. 224-25 and 248 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Domenico Gnoli was never tempted by the reality of the objects. Instead he believed in the representation of them, in their theatrical aspect. All of his works are like characters on stage; he was after all a brilliant stage designer. At theatre’s details escape the viewer, that’s when Gnoli’s art turns the lens and what we were used to seeing from afar becomes closer and closer. The proscenium is turned into a magnifying lens. The viewer is turned into a tailor, a hairstylist, a barber, a seamstress, a maid, also a flee. Everything in Gnoli’s art is perfectly in order, groomed, combed, pressed, clean. Gnoli’s paintings are not frozen, they are suspended, waiting for something to go wrong. The hand ruffling the hair, the sweat wrinkling the shirt, the spot staining the pants, the thread fraying, the button falling, the sex messing the bed. In the mid-seventies Philip Guston will address some of Gnoli’s subjects, two people in bed, the back of a canvas, the shoe, in a much more seedy and sloppy way. While in the mid-eighties, in a much more eerie way, Robert Gober will address with his beds, sheets, legs and hair the hidden violence under a seemingly proper appearance. Gnoli does not load his work with such meanings. He is an esthetic. A pressed shirt is an act of love and a demonstration of care not the premise for any kind of violence. A well prepared bed an act of duty and devotion. The inside of a woman’s shoe a whole universe, an abstract space, a form. In thi