William Xerra (1937) - Astratto - NO RESERVE

William Xerra (1937)

“ Abstract “

Measurements: 68 x 47.5 cm framed
Canvas: 60 x 40 cm

- Technique: Oil on canvas
Signature: Signed lower right
Period: circa 1960–1970
Frame: Gilt, contemporary with the work or from a later period.

Description of the work

An interesting abstract composition attributed to the work of William Xerra, a Piacenza-born artist and one of the leading figures in contemporary Italian artistic research. The work features a dynamic structure, characterized by the interplay between rigorous diagonal geometries and free, gestural, highly expressive painterly material. The luminous golden-yellow fields and red and blue bands contrast with a central nucleus of informal marks and shapes, creating a striking tension between compositional order and spontaneity of execution.

The painting appears to relate to the pictorial experimentation of the 1960s and 1970s, when abstract language was enriched by informal influences and explorations of the relationship between color, space, and mark.

A work of notable compositional quality and a testament to the abstract-informal artistic research of postwar Italian art.

The artist has exhibited at the Ricci Oddi Museum and various Italian and international museums, and has participated in several editions of the Venice Biennale.

An ideal work and artist for collecting and investment

- LOT OFFERED WITHOUT A RESERVE PRICE

The work is offered at auction without a reserve price, giving collectors and enthusiasts an interesting opportunity to acquire a painting of artistic and collecting significance.

The decision to offer the lot without a reserve is purely commercial in nature and should not be interpreted as an indication of the work’s historical, artistic, or market value.

A particularly interesting opportunity to enrich your collection with a work representative of twentieth-century artistic research.

Condition report: The work is in good condition, with possible age-related signs of wear. The complimentary frame has losses and areas of damage.

B I O G R A P H Y:

A versatile artist and tireless experimenter, William Xerra (Florence, 1937) has explored art’s infinite possibilities through crossing disciplinary boundaries and blending techniques and languages. After beginning his career as a painter in the 1950s in the tradition of Morandi and Sironi, he moved toward Informal and New Dada practices, before turning his attention to conceptual investigations. His first decisive connections, however, were with poets, particularly leading figures of Visual Poetry such as Emilio Villa and Corrado Costa.

Among the exhibitions of these years, we recall the IV International Open Encounter on Video, at CAYAC in Buenos Aires in 1975; that same year, he took part in Visuele Poëzie at the Rijkmuseum Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam and Internationale Visuele Poëzie at Centrum T Hoogt in Utrecht.
In 1976, in Pavia, in the Aula Magna of Collegio Cairoli, Xerra staged the performance Contiamo i minuti.
In 1977, he held a solo exhibition at Galleria di Porta Ticinese in Milan, and participated in the group exhibition Forme della scrittura at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna.
In 1978, notable exhibitions included his solo show at Mercato del Sale in Milan and the exhibitions Metafisica del quotidiano at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna and Venerezia-Revenice at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
At the same time, his performance work continued: in particular, in 1979, the artist dedicated a performance to the ritual route through the Sassi of Matera.
Also in 1979 in Matera, Xerra produced a series of altered photographs, which he showed in the exhibition Le parole e le immagini at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan.
His commitment to painting, which marked the entire decade of the 1980s, with the adoption of spatial divisions and orthogonal projections that seem to echo his early explorations of space, did not prevent Xerra from continuing to use writing as a fundamental element of his research.
In 1981, he took part in Linea della ricerca artistica in Italia 1960/80 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome; also in Rome, in 1982, he performed a sound piece titled Il taglio del nastro – memorie acustiche, broadcast in an episode of the Rai program Fonosfera.
In 1983, he took part in the XIII Festival Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna with a performance.
With the cycle of paintings Malinconia, created between 1982 and 1984, the artist’s gaze moves beyond any predetermined time and space, reclaiming the immediacy of painting.
Xerra also explored specific forms of poetic composition, taking part in two editions of the Milanopoesia festival, in 1985 and 1990.
In 1985, Gillo Dorfles edited the monograph Xerra, “ellera errare strale” for Nuova Prearo Editore in Milan.
In 1987, Filiberto Menna invited him to the touring exhibition Pittura-scrittura-pittura, alongside, among others, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Cy Twombly, and Gastone Novelli.
Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Xerra undertook several important commissions: in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he frescoed the rooms of a sheikh’s residence, and in Ascoli Piceno he painted the ceilings of an aristocratic villa. This is when the geometric motifs, ornamental meanders, and poetic fragments by Cecco d’Ascoli emerged, and later appeared in his paintings.
In 1988, he was invited to the international exhibition Olympiad of Art at the International Art Museum in Seoul. In 1990, Filiberto Menna presented Xerra Le parole della pittura at his solo exhibition at Galleria Mazzocchi in Parma.
In 1991, he took part in the group exhibitions Homage to Ezra Pound at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bolzano and The Artist and the Book: Twentieth-century Italy at MoMA in New York.
Also in 1991, Xerra ventured into a new field, design, creating everyday and furnishing objects, exhibited at Centro Domus in Milan as part of the exhibition Oggetti d’uso e d’incanto, curated by Pierre Restany, who wrote in the catalogue: “Through various stylistic experiences, Xerra has demonstrated his ability to make full use of the possibilities, the full potential of chance—without unnecessary pretension or gratuitous spectacle—recognizing it as the key to communication.”
In 1992, he moved from Piacenza to Ziano, in the hills of Val Tidone, to an old house in the historic center that became his home and studio.
That same year, the book Xerra nella collezione della Banca Commerciale Italiana di Milano, edited by Claudio Cerritelli, was published.
In 1993, he took part in the 45th Venice Biennale, in Emilio Villa’s room, with the poem-pinball machine Laocoonte.
Between 1993 and 1994, a special exhibition of small-format works titled Morso dal suono was presented in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Paris, and Parma.
In 1994, he was also in Ankara with a collection of drawings at the Italian Cultural Institute.
In 1995, an important monograph, William Xerra. La soglia del visibile, edited by Aldo Tagliaferri, was published by Mazzotta in Milan, ahead of the following year’s monographic solo exhibition at Galleria Bianca Pilat in Milan. Vincenzo Accame also published La pratica del falso with Spirali, with a cover image by Xerra: Mantegna’s Dead Christ, a copy made in 1988 for the exhibition Museo dei musei at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Accame wrote of Xerra: “He is neither a forger nor a professional copyist, but simply an artist who knows his craft, as many others should before presuming to make art.”
That same year, he exhibited in Ailleurs at Galerie Lara Vincy in Paris.
In 1996, he was in Chicago at the Italian Cultural Institute with the solo exhibition Fragments in time, curated by Paul Vangelisti.
That same year, the City of Padua dedicated a solo exhibition to him, Xerra – Frammenti nel tempo, at the Galleria dell’Ex Macello.
Also in Padua, he held another solo exhibition, La metà del cuore, at Galleria Adelphi.
In 1997, together with the poet Paul Vangelisti, he presented the works Luci e colori d’Italia and the book of the same title, published by Corraini in Mantua, at Galleria Mazzocchi in Parma.
Also in 1997, A.C. Quintavalle curated the solo exhibition Xerra. Materiali per racconti possibili. Sebastiano Ricci, i Farnese e altro – Studi per Clemente VII, at the Pinacoteca of Palazzo Farnese in Piacenza.
In 1998, he took part in Poesia Totale at Palazzo della Ragione, Mantua Civic Museums.
In 1999, he participated in the exhibition Il libro d’artista in Italia at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Turin.
He also created an important painting cycle on the Stations of the Cross: the fourteen interpretations were displayed alongside panels by an anonymous eighteenth-century Piedmontese painter. The work was presented the following year in churches in Piacenza, Parma, and Vicenza.
Also in 1999, he took part in Il rosso e il nero at the Scuderie della Pilotta in Parma.
In 2001, notable exhibitions included his solo show at Galleria Vismara in Milan, curated by Sandro Parmiggiani, and the retrospective at GAMEC in Gallarate, curated by Marco Senaldi.
Also that year, Father Andrea Dall’Asta and Francesco Tedeschi curated Il mistero della passione, a solo exhibition at Galleria San Fedele in Milan.
In 2002, at Fondazione Mudima in Milan, he presented the manifesto IO MENTO, read by Pierre Restany. The manifesto was later discussed in September 2002 in Piacenza at a national conference at the Auditorium of the Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano, attended by Andrea Borsari, Andrea Bortolon, Antonio Calbi, Giorgio Celli, Giulio Ciavoliello, Gillo Dorfles, Eugenio Gazzola, Loredana Parmesani, Pier Aldo Rovatti, and Aldo Tagliaferri.
In 2003, Xerra held a solo exhibition at the Centro Culturale Recoleta in Buenos Aires, featuring a new interpretation of the Stations of the Cross curated by Giorgio Guglielmino.
That same year, Lucia Miodini presented Xerra’s retrospective at the Scuderie della Pilotta in Parma, while Rachele Ferrario and Lorella Giudici organized Nella Materia at the Permanente in Milan, where Xerra exhibited the 1972–2001 work lapide vive/mento. In December, he also created the complex and evocative installation senza sapere, dedicated to the Nativity, at the former slaughterhouse construction site in Piacenza, with a contribution by Pierangelo Sequeri.
Another solo exhibition, Salire il Golgota, was held in 2004 at Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia, curated by Remo Bodei and Sandro Parmiggiani.
In 2005, he held a solo exhibition at Chapelle Saint Jean Baptiste in Saint Jeannet, Nice.
Among the most significant solo and group exhibitions of 2006 were:
Solo exhibition Il segno dell’imperfezione, curated by Eugenio Gazzola, at the Parma Poesia Festival.
Solo exhibition dedicated to Attilio Bertolucci, Cartoline illustrate, at Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Mamiano di Parma, curated by Ivo Iori.
Group exhibition Dedicata, Donata, Consegnata in Aosta, curated by Andrea Del Guercio.
International group exhibition Primo Piano at Museo Pecci in Prato.
12th Biennale of Sacred Art in San Gabriele, Teramo.
10th Venice Architecture Biennale, La città nuova. Invito a Vema, for the project by Massimo Ferrari and Tomaso Monestiroli.
In 2007, he held the solo exhibition Io mento, a virtual exhibition on Second Life, at Galleria Babele Arte in Itland.
That same year, he held the solo exhibition Mento a quest’ora at Galleria Derbylius in Milan, curated by Roberto Borghi.
In 2007–2008, he took part in La parola nell’arte del Novecento at Mart in Rovereto.
In 2008, Xerra was in Los Angeles at UCLA for a performance, Omaggio ad Adriano Spatola, and in Milan for Jean Cocteau. Le jolie coeur at the Centre Culturel Français.
In Reggio Emilia, he held the solo exhibition Mento sulla mia verità at Galleria Radium Artis.
In 2009, he took part in:
Poverty has a face, Council of Europe, Strasbourg.
Dolore di Dio, storia dell’uomo. Luttringer, Manzù, Xerra, Fondazione Lercaro, Bologna.
Les amours de William Xerra, Galerie Quadrige, Nice.
Gli amori di William Xerra, Galleria Maria Cilena, Milan.
Also in 2009, La Grande tavola, created by Xerra at Ansaldo for Milano Poesia 90, was exhibited at the Scuderie della Pilotta in Parma, curated by Ivo Iori and Lucia Miodini.
That same year, the book Peggio per loro by Luigi Ballerini and William Xerra was published by Edizioni Scritture.
In 2009, Gli amori di William Xerra was also shown at Maria Cilena – Arte Contemporanea in Milan.
In 2010, he took part in the group exhibitions Amore A-meno in Ameno, Novara, curated by Elisabetta Longari; Paralleli, International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Sabbioneta, Mantua, curated by Stefania Provinciali; and Poesia Visiva – La collezione Bellora at Mart in Rovereto. He also held a solo exhibition at the Civic Museum of Recanati as part of the Infinito Festival.
In August of that year, he coordinated a group performance by posting the Manifesti della Menzogna in the village of Sella di Lodrignano, in the Parma hills, and spoke on the theme L’imperfezione dell’arte at the Civic Art Collection venue.
In October 2010, on the occasion of Contemporary Art Day, he took part in the performance Sessanta secondi ma tutti primi, curated by the BAU group, at Mart in Rovereto.
In November, one of his lamps was exhibited in Lampes d’artistes pour Hanouca 2010 at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris.
In 2011, a solo exhibition was held at Spazio Biffi in Piacenza, curated by Angela Madesani.
Also in 2011, Affresco Live Opere nella Collezione di Pietro Casella was presented by Manuela Gandini at Biblioteca Sormani in Milan.
That same year, he held a solo exhibition at College Port-Lympia in Nice.
In 2012, Carte Libro was held at the University Library in Bologna.
In 2013, he took part in Novanta artisti per una bandiera at Chiostri di San Domenico in Reggio Emilia.
That same year, a solo exhibition by William Xerra and Marcel Alocco was held at Maria Cilena – Arte Contemporanea.
Also in 2013, he took part in E subito riprende il viaggio … Opere dalle collezioni del MA*GA dopo l’incendio at the Triennale in Milan.
His work is held in the Gallerie d’Italia collection, Cantiere del ‘900, in Milan.

He has received awards and honors.

His works are held in private collections in Italy and abroad.

Magnolia Arte Collection

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COMPLIMENTARY FRAME

The frame shown in the images is included with the work at no additional cost. As an accessory, the frame does not contribute to determining the painting’s economic or artistic value. Any signs of age, imperfections, or condition issues affecting the frame shall not constitute grounds for a dispute.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTE – PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING

Photographs of the work were taken in a controlled photographic setting, using spotlights and professional lighting to enhance its chromatic, textural, and compositional qualities.

Please note that artificial lighting may cause slight variations in the perception of colors, contrasts, and tones compared with viewing the work in person under natural light. Such differences are considered normal and do not constitute alterations to the work.