Estimate
€ 600 - 900
Aggiudicato
Current bid Starting bid
€ 350
Your offer is the highest Your bid doesn't meet the reserve price La tua offerta è stata superata(0 bids, reserve not met)
At auction on Wednesday 18 June 2025 at 16:00
Information
Vintage gelatin silver print
cm 24,3 x 18 | 9.5 x 7 in.
Opera VINTAGE copyright by archivio opera Arrigo Orsi stamps on the verso
Arrigo Orsi (Virgilio, Mantua 1897 - 1967) belongs to that kind of non-professional photographer capable of great professional skills. A phthisiologist and university lecturer, he was a member of the Circolo Fotografico Milanese from which he left in 1950, following Pietro Donzelli to the Unione Fotografica - an important group that brought international exhibitions to Italy - of which he became director. His production is heterogeneous: it goes from landscapes, portraits and images of social commitment to research into a geometric abstractionism influenced by Bauhaus aesthetics.
Looking at these two photographs, it seems difficult to attribute them to the same author because the only elements they have in common are great care for printing and an evident taste for research. The explanation is that Arrigo Orsi was, above all, a man full of curiosity: this drove him to develop ideas related to the classic aesthetics that were dominant in the second half of the 1930s when he began to take photographs, as is evident in this nude of expressionist taste. His friendship with Luigi Veronesi - a master of abstractionism in photography as well as in painting and graphics - cultivated also in their common activism in the Photographic Union, pushed him to research the dynamism of forms that others in Europe were elaborating in black and white. Orsi also produced them, but to these he added others within the expressive perimeter of colour: in this case he was one of the first, as early as the 1940s, to use a refined and complex subtractive printing technique marketed by Kodak, the Dye Transfer, which made it possible to obtain works of outstanding chromatic quality by registering three negatives.
cm 24,3 x 18 | 9.5 x 7 in.
Opera VINTAGE copyright by archivio opera Arrigo Orsi stamps on the verso
Arrigo Orsi (Virgilio, Mantua 1897 - 1967) belongs to that kind of non-professional photographer capable of great professional skills. A phthisiologist and university lecturer, he was a member of the Circolo Fotografico Milanese from which he left in 1950, following Pietro Donzelli to the Unione Fotografica - an important group that brought international exhibitions to Italy - of which he became director. His production is heterogeneous: it goes from landscapes, portraits and images of social commitment to research into a geometric abstractionism influenced by Bauhaus aesthetics.
Looking at these two photographs, it seems difficult to attribute them to the same author because the only elements they have in common are great care for printing and an evident taste for research. The explanation is that Arrigo Orsi was, above all, a man full of curiosity: this drove him to develop ideas related to the classic aesthetics that were dominant in the second half of the 1930s when he began to take photographs, as is evident in this nude of expressionist taste. His friendship with Luigi Veronesi - a master of abstractionism in photography as well as in painting and graphics - cultivated also in their common activism in the Photographic Union, pushed him to research the dynamism of forms that others in Europe were elaborating in black and white. Orsi also produced them, but to these he added others within the expressive perimeter of colour: in this case he was one of the first, as early as the 1940s, to use a refined and complex subtractive printing technique marketed by Kodak, the Dye Transfer, which made it possible to obtain works of outstanding chromatic quality by registering three negatives.
Contact
Condition report
To request a Condition Report, please contact fotografia@finarte.it
The department will provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Please note that what Finarte declares with respect to the state of conservation of the objects corresponds only to a qualified opinion and that we are not professional conservators or restorers.
We urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. We always suggest prospective buyers to inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition during the exhibition days as indicated in the catalog.
More Lots
79
Tazio Secchiaroli
Sophia Loren e Richard Avedon, Roma, 1966
Estimate € 1.000 - 1.500
Starting bid € 700
81
Vittorio Sella
Cervino, dai pressi della vetta del Dent d'Hérens, 1885
Estimate € 800 - 1.200
Current bid € 950
