(Berlin 1895 - Saint Tropez 1971)
L'INCONTRO II, 1932
Etching, 1932, Meloni-Tavola 8. Signed in pencil MCampigli. A fine impression of this very rare print, pulled, with strong plate-tone, on Arches wove paper. This etching didn't have an edition but was distributed by Campigli himself as a present. In fact, in our impression, a closer examination reveals, to the left of the bottom margin, the traces of an inscription in pencil canceled: Natale 1935. The paper lightly toned, generally in very good condition. 197 x 151 mm; the full sheet measuring 326 x 252 mm.
After military service during World War I, Campigli moved to Paris in 1919. In Paris he worked for nine years as a journalist for Il Corriere della Sera, during which time he began to paint. Self-taught as a painter, he was initially drawn to Purism, Léger, the neoclassicizing works of Picasso and Metaphysical painting. Campigli also admired the preclassical works in the Louvre, but it was only in 1928, when he saw the Etruscan collection at the Villa Giulia in Rome, that he was profoundly affected by ancient art. His love of archaism and of hieratic and abstract form led him to find sources in Cretan, Pompeian and Coptic as well as Etruscan art. Campigli very rapidly won acclaim, and had exhibitions in Rome, New-York, Venice and Paris. He settled in Saint Tropez in 1949; the Palazzo Reale in Milan held a big retrospective show of his work in 1967. Campigli always showed interest in prints, mainly lithography.
