CORRADO CAGLI (Italian, 1910-1976) The Bishop 1959 Oil on canvassed paper 48.9 x 34.9 cm / 19 3/5 x 14 in. Corrado Cagli was a leading Italian exponent of Modernism. Early in his career, he endeavoured to encapsulate a new, pure form of painting that drew upon the rich artistic history of the nation, always looking to further his realms of representation – this can be seen in his restless artistic practice, shifting between mediums and styles both regularly and drastically. Elements of the primodalismo he introduced upon co-founding the Grupo dei Nuovi Pittori Romani (the ‘Roman School of Painting’) in 1932, were already evident in early mural and fresco painting for public commissions. This evocative style of painting sought inspiration from Classicism and Ancient Rome. “His is a fantastical temperament; thanks to his extraordinary skill he can abandon himself to all whims of aspirations…he recalls the negroes, the archaic peoples, the artists of the caves…he moves on to mysterious and evocative abstractions, true snares for invention, outwardly not dissimilar from the compositions of Prampolini or Fillia. Fabulous and realistic, classical and futurist…Cagli recreated all of Picas so at once: the ornate artist, with his Canovan elegance, of the early years, the Cubist before and the archaic artist after the war.” - Alberto Spaini, 1932 An artist of Jewish heritage, Cagli undercame severe censorship by Mussolini’s Fascist regime for his contemporary portrayals of Italian classics – never one to back away from freedom of expression. Repeated public attacks towards Cagli and his family, amplified by a close affiliation to the Galleria della Cometa, itself with Jewish connections based in New York, made Cagli leave Italy in 1938 following the untenable passing of the Italian Racial Laws (1938-43). He first went to Paris and then to New York where he called home until 1947. Cagli’s artistic theories and concepts progressed greatly in New York – these were formative years in exile. Moving within intellectual circles of leading mathematicians and theorisers of the day – his sister having married the mathematician and lecturer Oscar Zariski – Cagli studied non-Euclidean mathematics and physics, working on an appropriation to abstract art, a creative tangent that would define his later post-war oeuvre back in Italy. Exhibiting across the USA whilst there, Cagli took citizenship in 1941 and voluntarily enrolled in the 188th Field Artillery Group, intent on defending freedom. He actively took part as an officer in the Normandy Landings, campaigns of France and Paris, Belgium, the Ardennes and the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, Germany. Following the war, Cagli abandoned his previously mythopoetic style, focusing on a personal abstract style of painting guided by mathematical and scientific theory he had undertaken in America. Through all this, we see Cagli as a truly intellectual, philosophical artist routed in a synthesis of art history and leading contemporary theory, stamped with an undeniable imprint of originality. It is this culmination of years of consideration, exploration and personal philosophical conviction that defined the latter period of his artistic production, where he attempted to assimilate all the theories he had absorbed into artistic expression – attempting to convey three-dimensions on a two-dimensional canvas, in his own language. He took great interest in this dimensional battle, embracing the neo-Cubist, neo-Metaphysical and informal tendencies of the 1950’s-1960’s. Artworks from this period are clearly less figurative as Cagli produced in increasing degrees of abstraction, non-figuration and dynamic colour. The artwork in question, The Bishop, 1959, hails from this culmination, realised in an intensely productive two year period of a small number of quality, distinctive artworks in this style. The series Cards (1958-59), utilised oil paint and, symbolically, an airbrush, to create trompe-l'œil in an emphatically illusory, multi-dimensional image that references classical ideals in an entirely Cagli way. Corrado Cagli remains a leading figure in 20th century art and his artworks can be found in private collections and public institutions worldwide.