Giorgio Morandi - Correspondence - Mid-20th-century

The set includes 3 autograph letters addressed to the painter Mino Maccari: -L.A.S Bologna, June 29, 1949, (28x22cm), perfect state -L.A.S Bologna, July 14, 1946, (22x30cm), perfect state -L.A.S Levico, July 12, 1957, (28x18cm) with envelope (14.5x9.5cm) and postmark. Morandi's engraving, always drawn in a limited number of prints (up to a maximum of 75 copies) was supported by the magazine ''Il Selvaggio'' directed by Mino Maccari. Not only the magazine published many of the artist's etchings, but also the Morandi's name was one of the tops in exhibitions organized by the magazine: the inaugural exhibition (February 1927) of the 'Stanza del Selvaggio', the gallery opened by Maccari in Florence (in this occasion Morandi knew Giuseppe Bottai, who bought two sheets), and the II Esposizione (April 1927). Morandi's success as an engraver was sanctioned with the invitation to introduce a series of bottles at the XVI Venice Biennale (1928): on this occasion the sheets on sale were purchased from the cultural and political elite of Fascism and some museums (The Galleries of Rome, Piacenza and Vienna). The alliance created by Maccari, Longanesi and the secretary of the union of fascist artists, the roman Cipriano Efisio Oppo, with the help of Bottai, allowed Morandi to get the famous engraving chair in January 1930. At the same time with the decrease of his public visibility, Morandi grew in importance as a cultural reference and began to be considered the greatest Italian artist by a group of intellectuals such as Brandi, Longhi, Giulio Carlo Argan, all close to Minister Bottai and protected by him: in 1941, in his critical writing ''Fronte dell'Arte'', Bottai pointed to Morandi as the most significant example of the fascist twenty-year art for his ability to re-establish the ''weight of the ethical factor in the artistic fact.''