46 - Gualtiero Busato (1941–2025)

Gualtiero Busato (1941–2025) Crotonesi (Women of Crotone), Nice, February 25, 1974 Felt-tip pen Titled “CROTONESI” in the lower left; inscribed, signed, and dated by hand in the lower right: “To my friend Yves Guérin, with friendship, G. Busato, Nice, 2/25/74” Dimensions: Sheet 29.7 × 21 cm (11 ⅝ × 8 ¼ in.) — Image: full sheet Condition: good condition, unframed Provenance: Yves Guérin’s guestbook, compiled between 1963 and 1992 (provenance from a single source). Dated in Nice in February 1974—precisely when Busato was exhibiting at the Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice, the institution headed by the collector: the album’s most direct documentary link to this venue. Description: A vigorous felt-pen drawing depicting three draped figures—women from Crotone, in Calabria, wrapped in shawls and headscarves, monumental and expressive, one with her arm raised—rendered in broad, brushed black lines with hatched shading. Gualtiero Busato was a Franco-Italian sculptor, born in Civitavecchia in 1941, based in Paris, and a specialist in bronze; drawn to classical and poetic subjects rendered with Baroque expressiveness, he was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2004 and created “Les Messagers” for the Saint-Germain-des-Prés metro station. Signed, dated, and inscribed by hand.