Born in Bari, Pino Pascali loved the sea, toys, pop art and all sorts of futile occupations. He died in 1968 at age 33 after a motorcycle accident. He had perhaps never stopped playing.
1966 was a year of great creativity for Pascali with his series entitled Decapitazione de la scultura. These three-dimensional works look like sculptures but are fabrics stretched onto wooden structures.
The painted canvas simulates the skin of a recognizable element of an animal, such as the crest of the back of a dinosaur emerging from the floor. Pascali decapitates in his art giraffes, rhinos and sharks. This reduction of the theme to a detail may be compared with the paintings by Domenico Gnoli at the same time.
The dolphin tail, marked Cetacei by the artist, goes even further in the demolition of classical art. This artwork must be hanged to the rail like a framed painting but extends beyond the wall by no less than 143 cm. This unprecedented use of the exhibition space anticipates by four decades the installations by Maurizio Cattelan.
Coda di delfino is estimated £ 1.5M for sale by Christie's in London on October 6, lot 118.
SOLD for £ 2.63M including premium
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