Three Milanese art dealers are pooling their resources and inventories and opening a gallery in London at the end of January. Luca Gracis, Matteo Lampertico and Ruggero Montrasio will focus on lesser-known Modern Italian artists, presenting solo shows at M&L Fine Art on Old Bond Street.
“Everybody knows Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and Piero Manzoni; it’s getting boring. The idea is to promote something a little different,” Lampertico says.
Angelo Savelli is due to have the first one-man exhibition at the gallery, the late artist’s first in the UK (22 January-25 March). Although highly regarded in Italy—Miuccia Prada is said to own around 400 paintings and works on paper by Savelli—he is little known on the international market. Supply is scarce: apart from Prada’s collection, Lampertico estimates that there are only 200 more paintings by the artist in existence.
Titled Basically White, the exhibition presents Savelli as a pioneer in developing a monochrome palette, ahead of the likes of Fontana, Manzoni and Robert Ryman, whose works are also featured in the show. They are due to hang alongside around 15 paintings by Savelli, priced between €30,000 and €120,000.
“Savelli started using white in 1957, when he threw all other colour pigments in the rubbish bin,” Lampertico says. “He came before Manzoni, who began painting in monochrome in around 1958 and Fontana, who started in the early 1960s.”
Antonio Calderara is due to have the second solo exhibition at M&L Fine Art (15 April-10 June 2016), while the summer show will be dedicated to Salvatore Scarpitta and the autumn exhibition will feature works by Leonardi Leoncillo. The public opening of M&L Fine Art follows a soft launch in October for friends and patrons.
The new gallery will add to a flourishing post-war Italian art scene in London, coming hot on the heels of record Italian auctions in the UK capital in October, as well as the arrival of several Italian galleries, including Mazzoleni and Tornabuoni.
