86. Antigraceful in a stream of bulbous masses accompanied Antigrazioso 1913 by some disorder; it is not an actual stylistic organization but is in any case a tendency to Bronze ward style; the compressed lumps of flesh 24 X 20Y2 X 16 in. (61 X 52.1 X 40.6 em.) weigh in a few hollows constructed by the Collection Lydia Winston Malbin, New York bony framework that here and there protrudes in hooks suggesting a submerged but secure The present work was cast in bronze by the structure. Again, the weightiness of the sag lost-wax process in 1950-51 from the plaster ging material-this plastic obsession that dom original, which then belonged to the Mari inates modern art-is vitally expressed where netti family. The work was commissioned a number of bulbous forms hang on a single from the Perego foundry by Gino Ghiringhelli filament, hidden like a dozen soft figs attached of the Galleria 11 Milione in Milan on the oc to a single stem. Some elements remain out casion of an exhibition of Italian art in Paris. side, alluded to but not integrated into the en In November 1956 this cast was sold by vironmental background, from which two Benedetta Marinetti to Harry and Lydia Win superfluous papery segments radiate. But it is ston (now Collection Lydia Winston Malbin, necessary to dwell on these elements some New York), along with the two other bronzes, what when they tend to stand out and almost Development of a Bottle in Space (no. 87) and to impose themselves .... Antigraceful: an ar Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (no. 88). ticulated, almost submerged but sure struc The plaster model, exhibited in Paris in ture, since in its hollow intervals it clots in the summer of 1913 along with other sculp hardened bulbous masses-a hardening also tures, was sold on that occasion or shortly in the organic sense-the convoluted mire of thereafter. Indeed, Boccioni in a letter to his friend Giuseppe Sprovieri-the young gallery owner and promoter of numerous Futurist projects, including the sculpture show in his gallery on Via del Tritone in Rome-stated that the work had been sold. In all probability the letter dates to late 1913, shortly before the opening of the sculpture exhibition on De cember 6. On the occasion of this Rome show the critic for Il Tirso remarked: "The origi nality and works of this man, who in a single year has passed from the quasi-Impressionist experiments of Antigraceful to the straightfor ward Futurism of Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, are truly admirable! Antigraceful al ready offers some experiments in thickness and a few timid interpenetrations of planes." Exhibited again in Florence in 1914, as the property of Cavaliere Alberto Porta of Milan, the sculpture was analyzed by Longhi (1914): "A few words on Antigraceful will suffice. Imagine a Post-Impressionism that, by leaving much to the action of chiaroscuro, tends to consolidate some flowing, instanta neous image-perhaps Rosso's old concierge -by gathering the disturbed plastic material 86
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