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Vintage gelatin silver print, mounted on aluminium and printed in 1972
cm 36,8 x 25,3 | 14.5 x 10 in.
Ugo Mulas's long-standing relationship with Lucio Fontana allows the photographer a complicity with the artist that emerged in the famous 1964 sequence “L'attesa” with the cutting of the canvas. Here, however, the photographer shows that skill in reproducing works acquired through frequenting the studios of painters and sculptors. These three prints thus become an effective reference to the artistic work of the great master of Spatialism: one recognizes three famous spatial concepts from 1965 entitled “Teatrini” because they are composed of perforated monochrome canvases inserted into shaped frames that are integral parts of the works. The portrait made of Marcel Duchamp - published several times in major monographs - is part of a large series of shots made in New York outdoors in Washington Square, inside the Museum of Modern Art in front of his famous “Grande vetro” which he observes with distant detachment and, as in our case, in his home. It is Mulas himself who reminds us that he was interested in highlighting Duchamp's “attitudes of non-doing” and “highlighting his renunciation.” Thus, he catches him as, sitting in his famous armchair, he casts a glance at the photograph of him playing chess with a naked woman. For the record, it had been made in 1963 at the Pasadena Museum of Art, L.A., where Walter Hopps had curated the artist's first American retrospective. The author of the image, Julian Wasser, asked 20-year-old friend Eva Babliz during the opening to pose nude in homage to Duchamp's provocative art, which she, the daughter of an artist, did with enthusiasm.
cm 36,8 x 25,3 | 14.5 x 10 in.
Work accompanied by Certificate of authenticity released by Archivio Ugo Mulas, Milan
Literature
Castagnoli, Italiano, Mattirolo (edited by), Ugo Mulas. La scena dell'arte, Electa 2007, pp. 324-333
Specialist Notes
The photographic print, in terms of format and mounting, presumably belongs to a specimen of the portfolio “Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1965 - 1967” consisting of 10 photographs and produced in an edition of 100 in 1972.
Ugo Mulas (Pozzolengo, Brescia 1928 - Milan 1973) frequented the Milanese artistic milieu around the Jamaica bar where he met Mario Dondero and began a career born of his many interests: reporter for L'illustrazione Italiana and set photographer for the Piccolo Teatro, documenting the Venice Biennale from 1954 to 1972 he became close with artists such as Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Alik Cavaliere, and Fausto Melotti. Travels in the early 1960s to the U.S. from which came the volume “New York arte e persone” introduced him to Andy Warhol, Robert Raushenberg, Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank. He participated in neo-avant-garde events directed by Luciano Caramel (Campo Urbano, Como 1969) and Paul Restany (Noveau Réalisme, Milan 1970). A deep consideration of the role of photography influenced by the theoretical contribution of Marcel Duchamp leads him to the metaphotographic work “Le verifiche” published in 1972 by Einaudi. His works, exhibited in museum spaces all over Europe, and his numerous monographs are curated by the Milan archive edited by his daughters Melina and Valentina. Ugo Mulas's long-standing relationship with Lucio Fontana allows the photographer a complicity with the artist that emerged in the famous 1964 sequence “L'attesa” with the cutting of the canvas. Here, however, the photographer shows that skill in reproducing works acquired through frequenting the studios of painters and sculptors. These three prints thus become an effective reference to the artistic work of the great master of Spatialism: one recognizes three famous spatial concepts from 1965 entitled “Teatrini” because they are composed of perforated monochrome canvases inserted into shaped frames that are integral parts of the works. The portrait made of Marcel Duchamp - published several times in major monographs - is part of a large series of shots made in New York outdoors in Washington Square, inside the Museum of Modern Art in front of his famous “Grande vetro” which he observes with distant detachment and, as in our case, in his home. It is Mulas himself who reminds us that he was interested in highlighting Duchamp's “attitudes of non-doing” and “highlighting his renunciation.” Thus, he catches him as, sitting in his famous armchair, he casts a glance at the photograph of him playing chess with a naked woman. For the record, it had been made in 1963 at the Pasadena Museum of Art, L.A., where Walter Hopps had curated the artist's first American retrospective. The author of the image, Julian Wasser, asked 20-year-old friend Eva Babliz during the opening to pose nude in homage to Duchamp's provocative art, which she, the daughter of an artist, did with enthusiasm.
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