237 - Dado Belgrado (1919–1999)

Dado Belgrado (1919–1999) Cliffs of Hvar, 1987 Acrylic and charcoal on panel 90.8 x 93 cm Signature: “Belgrado” in charcoal on the front Date: “87” in charcoal on the front Other inscriptions: title (“Cliffs of Kwar”) in pencil on the back, with dimensions, an illegible word, and graphic notes Distinctive features: anonymous label with inventory reference on the reverse and, around the entire perimeter of the frame, the manufacturer’s stamp “Arquati” Provenance: Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Condition. Support: 95% Condition. Surface: 90% (some deposits; minimal scratches and damage from abrasion and impact) For direct WhatsApp assistance before and during the live auction: +39 346 12 999 80 // Direct assistance via WhatsApp before and during the auction: +39 346 12 999 80 Introduced to the restoration of Venetian villas by his father, a decorator, Edoardo Belgrado—known as Dado—attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Architecture in Venice. He subsequently collaborated for five years with urban planner Marcello D’Olivo (1921–1991), and together they created the “Villaggio del fanciullo” in Trieste. In 1950, he met Le Corbusier in Marseille, where the “Ville radieuse” was under construction, and then spent some time in Switzerland. In 1953, he left for Brazil and opened an engineering and architecture firm in Campinas. There he discovered marvelous places that were being ravaged and destroyed by massive machines used for deforestation. Urbanization sometimes involved leveling mountains and erecting large earthen dams. From that point on, the themes of nature and machinery became central to his work. In 1956, he exhibited a series of drawings at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo. He wrote a column titled “Man, Space, and Architecture” and founded a nonconformist art group that would leave a lasting mark on South American contemporary art. He returned to Italy in 1959 and became involved in prefabrication projects. His research in the field of graphic design took him to China. Meanwhile, in 1979, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Campinas, Brazil, honored him with a solo exhibition, as did the Giuseppe Pitrè Sicilian Ethnographic Museum in Palermo. In the meantime, he created a portfolio of graphic works titled “Fantastic Journey Through the Pittini Steelworks,” exhibited by Falaschi in Passariano in 1980, containing eight works depicting the steel production process, titled “The Magnet Calls,” “Starting All Over Again,” “At the Mouth of the Furnace,” “This Act of Love,” “The Great Event,” “The Red-Hot Bars,” “Paling to a Pale Whiteness,” “The Wings of New Butterflies,” and accompanied by a short poem of his own. That artistic and literary experience is documented in a seminal essay by Marcello Venturoli. In 1987—the year of our work so strongly inspired by nature, yet a nature imbued with the power of geometry—he participated in the exhibition “La fabbrica immaginata” at Villa Florio in Buttrio.