1959
Italian
oil on canvas
Framed: 20 1/8 × 22 1/8 in. (51.12 × 56.2 cm)
Unframed: 12 × 13 7/8 in. (30.48 × 35.24 cm)
93.67
Morandi devoted himself to producing multiple series of similar still-life paintings around 1940, steadily creating more abstract compositions by the 1950s. In his 1946 White Still Life, also in this collection, he rendered objects in several tones, producing the effect of shadow and depth in the manner of traditional still lifes that convincingly translate three-dimensional subjects on two-dimensional canvas. In this 1959 Still Life, however, Morandi used flat expanses of color, detaching objects from the real world and placing them in an imaginary one where spatial relationships are less important than the artist’s vision.
Signed in lower left corner: "Morandi"; seven labels on reverse; stamped with stretcher size on reverse and "8148"
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
©artist or artist’s estate

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