The Best of Abstract Art at Auction

Abstract art leads Italian house Cambi Casa d’Aste’s next Modern & Contemporary Art auction, to be held 15-16 July, with the works of some of the world’s best artists, from Emilio Scanavino to Hans Hartung, passing through Enzo Mari, Richard Lin and Georg Baselitz. 

Among the most important works in the catalogue there is an oil on masonite by Emilio Scanavino, from 1953. 

Scanavino was from the Genoa region of Liguria and in his first artistic phase devoted himself to landscapes and everyday subjects. The fundamental experience in his stylistic path, however, was a trip to Paris in the years following the Second World War, during which he assimilated the Cubist suggestions and the influence of abstract art. In the 1950s, he attended the famous ceramic workshop in Tullio d'Albisola, where he met Fontana, Baj, Dova, Crippa, Jorn, Lam and many other artists who influenced his artistic direction and with whom he made sincere friendships. In 1953, the year in which he created the work for sale by Cambi, Scanavino gravitated around the Milanese group of the Spatialists, who had the Galleria del Naviglio as their reference point, however he never officially joined the movement. 

The work of Richard Lin's The Long and the short is of a completely different style, an oil on canvas and aluminum in the ethereal tones of white and grey and with a strong geometric impact. The clean and clear lines mark the horizontal composition of Lin, a Taiwanese English-born minimalist artist. Trained as an architect, his inclination is perfectly visible in the style of his works as well as in his predilection for plastic and metal: Lin's works have a strong connection with the work and research of Donald Judd and more widely with minimalism American art.

Moving towards German abstractionism, the two famous names of Hans Hartung and Georg Baselitz stand out in Cambi’s auction, the first with three works, the second instead with a beautiful watercolour on paper from 1977.

Hartung’s work T1975-R39 from 1975 is an acrylic on wood signed in simple tones of brick, black and blue – all in an elegant composition marked by the painter's trademark and graphic cues. 

Baselitz's watercolour, on the other hand, reflects his concept of ‘destroyed order’, resulting from the experience of the Second World War: ''I was born in a destroyed order, in a destroyed landscape, between destroyed people, in a destroyed society. I didn't want to restore an order. I have seen enough of the so-called order. I was forced to question everything, to be 'naive', to start again.''

Very particular and niche is the work Structure by the great Italian designer Enzo Mari, universally considered one of the greatest theorists of Italian and world design. Alessandro Mendini said of him:

The work, composed of metal sheets assembled within Plexiglas, comes from a private Bolognese collection.

Cambi’s catalogue dedicated to Modern & Contemporary Art has over 240 works, and also collects some interesting lots from two important collections, the Stellatelli Collection, dedicated to the generation of artists who took their first steps in Milan in the ‘90s, such as Frangi, Papetti, Petrus, Pigantelli and Velasco, and the Borroni Collection, from the entrepreneur and great lover of art Eugenio Borroni, which comes from the ‘Borroni Factory’, a reference point for young artists, collectors and enthusiasts. On the same day, photography lots (248-283) will also be auctioned, including works by Mario Giacomelli, Nino Lo Duca, Peter Beard and Shirin Neshat. The catalogue ends with the section dedicated to Comics (lots 284-331).

The auction is taking place on 15 and 16 July in Milan in two part sessions.

Discover all pieces available at Cambi Casa d’Aste here