Luciano Blotto (1920-1986) - Due nudi femminili

Two original pencil graphite drawings on ivory cardboard, made by Luciano Blotto for his solo exhibition at Residence Rena Bianca in Baja Sardinia, inaugurated on September 22, 1979.

Each drawing is hand-traced on the back of the exhibition invitation cover (Nebiolina Typography, Olbia), which contains the presentation text intact inside. They are thus works born at the place and on the days of the event.

The first depicts a standing female figure, front-facing, with an arm raised behind the head; chiaroscuro is built with quick parallel hatchings and dark areas that separate the body from the background. Signed and dated "Blotto 79", with an additional date note to the left. The second shows a semisupine three-quarters figure, with the arm behind the head and the leg in the foreground: continuous and concise contour, diagonal hatchings on the flank. Signed "Blotto". Together they form a coherent pair in technique, subject, and dating.

The author: Luciano Blotto (Bellagio 1920, Torino 1986)

Born in Bellagio, on Lake Como, in 1920, Luciano Blotto trained in Turin at the Albertina Academy, the city where he pursued his career as painter and draftsman and where he would die in 1986. His public debut dates to 1942, with participation in the Promotrice di Belle Arti di Torino; the first solo show arrived in 1958 at the Galleria Malavolti.

In the following years he alternated appearances in group shows and national prizes, including the Suzzara Prize, with a sequence of solo exhibitions: in Santa Margherita Ligure, at Galleria Il Portico, in 1960; in Alessandria, at Galleria Alexandria, in 1969; in Guastalla, at Casa d'Arte S. Negri, in 1972; in Turin, at Palazzo Nervi, on the occasion of the National Antiquities Exhibition, in 1982. This path is complemented by the Baja Sardinia solo show, inaugurated on September 22, 1979, during which these pieces were created. In 1986, the year of his passing, the Municipality of Ciriè dedicated to him a retrospective in the Historical Library.

His painting revolves around constant themes—landscape, the female nude, and still life with fruit—addressed with an emotional engagement with nature that translates into bright and contrasting color, sometimes laid down in expansive fields, other times condensed into thick, material clumps. In his later production, the figures take on a softer and more compact tone.

Conditions: good. Drawings clearly legible; on the second, some foxing stains. The printed covers show amber halos along the edges, residues of a previous mounting as documented in the photographic records.