Amazing Serigraphed Cabinet By Artist Emilio Tadini, Published Casa Vogue

Beautiful and super rare 'Cassapanca di buona memoria' (chest of beautiful memories) by famed Italian artist Emilio Tadini (1927-2002). Tadini was invited to exhibit his paintings at the Venice Biennale in both 1978 and 1982 and was a true polymath in that he was also equally impressive as an artist, sculptor and poet. Umberto Eco, in a eulogy, said of him "a painter who writes, a writer who paints."

This design was a main feature in the September 1987 issue of Casa Vogue with photographs taken by the famed photographer Aldo Ballo. Please see image 2. The five visible external surfaces, including the hinged top, are covered in beautiful and vibrant original serigraphs by Tadini.

This design was produced in both black and white with the Casa Vogue reviewer stating that the black version was the most precious of the two. The black version of this design was also exhibited in 2014 at the Spazio Tadini, museum and exhibition space, in Milan. Please see image 10.

These exclusive cabinets were produced in very small numbers, circa 1930-1950 examples is estimated, by the Italian company Interflex in the 1980s.Unfortunately Interflex no longer exists and closed its doors in the early 1990s.

This example still retains its original castors and is in very nice original condition.

A beautiful and rare piece fit to grace any home.

Literature: Casa Vogue, issue September 1987, page 281. Please see image 2.

BIOGRAPHY

A writer who paints, a painter who writes.” - Umberto Eco

Emilio Tadini (b. 1927 – d. 2002 Milan, Italy) is considered one of the most original personalities of Italy’s post - World War II cultural landscape. A Poet, novelist, essayist, art critic, journalist and painter, he was, in the words of friend and contemporary Umberto Eco, “A writer who paints, a painter who writes.”

In 1947 he debuted with a poem in Elio Vittorini's magazine Politecnico, which was followed by intense critical and theoretical writings on art. From 1963 to 1993 Tadini published four novels and a volume of poems. It was alongside his critical and literary work, from the late 1950s Tadini began to paint. His first solo exhibition was in 1961 at the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice, and then in 1965, in a group show, together with Mario Schifano, Valerio Adami and Lucio Del Pezzo at the newly opened Studio Marconi in Milan.

Although stylistically ‘Pop’ Tadini, rather than the superficial gloss of American Pop Art, was greater interested in the more introspective, personal, and at times intellectual British Pop Art such as Ronald Kitaj, Peter Blake, David Hockney and Allen Jones, but also to that of Francis Bacon, Patrick Caufield, and the figurative narratives of Valerio Adami and Hervé Télémaque.

Tadini developed a distinctive graphic painting style producing thematic cycles of works like serialised novels- each telling a story; Color & Co. (1969), Journey in Italy (1971) and Archaeology (1972), examples of which are exhibited here. We tentatively follow the protagonist in Life of Voltaire (1967) the first large scale cycle into a fantastic, dreamlike world, the everyday characters and objects are juxtaposed with the surreal, the comic with the tragedy and the fantastic with the mundane. With influences of Cubism and Surrealism, seemingly simple, straightforward images hide a multiplicity of meanings, deal with metaphysical principles and philosophy, pictorial streams of consciousness that develop over the entire series: from one image emerges others that modify and alter it. With a masterly ability Tadini controls two kinds of languages, the visual and the literary, his work is a place of convergence for the two forms of expression.

During the 1970s he had solo exhibitions in Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, London, Antwerp, the United States and Latin America, both in private galleries and in public spaces and museums. In 1978 and 1982 Tadini participated in the Venice Biennial, and in 1986 he had a large solo exhibition at the Rotonda di via Besana in Milan. From autumn 1995 to the summer of 1996 a major retrospective travelling exhibition took place in the museums of Stralsund, Bochum and Darmstad. In spring 2005, the Villa dei Cedri Museum in Bellinzona had a large posthumous retrospective of his work.

His extraordinary range of disciplines also included sculpture, textile and furniture design, as well as advertising; collaborating with various companies such as Renault and Gazzetta dello Sport creating for example the image of the 84 Giro d'Italia. Emilio Tadini is in the permanent collections of Civic Gallery of Modena, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Museum of the twentieth century, Milan, and Mambo - Museum of Modern Art, Bologna.

Condition report:

Good. Wear consistent with age and use. Lovely original condition, serigraphs in very good order. A very well looked after piece.