Prints from the Archive of Stamperia d’Arte 2RC will be auctioned on Wednesday, 26 February at Christie’s London South Kensington saleroom.
The 112 works, which will be seen together for the first time, have been assembled over fifty years from the renowned studio of Stamperia d’Arte 2RC, which was founded in 1959 by the Rossi family in Rome, Italy.
These unique prints are the bon à tirer impressions that tell the intimate story of trust and collaboration between artist and printer. Among them are works by some of today’s most eminent artists, including Alberto Burri, Pierre Alechinsky, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Afro Basaldella, as well as Sam Francis, Henry Moore and Victor Pasmore, to name a few.
Stamperia d’Arte 2RC’s long-established enthusiasm for printmaking has resulted in innovative and exciting techniques of style and scale. This sale presents an opportunity for established and new collectors around the world to acquire these important works, with estimates ranging from £700 up to £15,000.
Valter Rossi, founder of Stamperia d’Arte 2RC said: “I guess printmaking is in my DNA. For generations my family has been in the printmaking business, where I grew up in the workshop, watching the printers and typesetters at work and collecting wooden letters off the factory floor. Already as a boy, I had a keen interest in art; at the age of thirteen during a school trip to Paris I bought my first print – a Miró.”
Leading the sale is a remarkable etching, aquatint and embossing titled Cretti: H, 1971, by Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995), who was at the forefront of Italian Post-War Art (estimate: £8,000-12,000). This unique work, depicting a cracked surface, is the only white subject from the Cretti series and is part of the on-going response to the devastating earthquake that hit Sicily in 1968, resulting in the abandonment of the small town of Gibellina.
Victor Pasmore (1908-1998) is particularly well represented in the sale, which comprises a total of 14 works by the artist.
