Lot 189
ALBERTO MORROCCO R.S.A., R.S.W., R.P., R.G.I., L.L.D. (SCOTTISH 1917-1998) §
SIESTA
Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 103-196 | Thursday 05 December from 6pm
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
152cm x 160cm (60in x 63in)
Provenance
The Artist's children;
Private Collection, Scotland.
Literature:
Victoria Keller, & Clara Young, Alberto Morrocco, Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1993. pl.59, p.65
Footnote
This painting dates from c.1971.
Alberto Morrocco’s significance in 20th-century Scottish art manifests threefold: in his immediately recognisable artwork, through the influence of his long tenure as Head of Painting & Drawing at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee and, as time has shown, as the figurehead of an artistic family, with his son and nephew going on to be successful artists in their own right. Born in Aberdeen to Italian parents, he trained at Gray’s School of Art under the tutelage of James Cowie and Robert Sivell, becoming steeped in a particular Scottish art tradition that harked back to historic approaches of the country of his parents’ birth. This Scottish-Italian fusion would continue to evolve through his art, as this rigorous training and commitment to formal qualities mingled with the inspiration of his own later travels to Italy.
Morrocco’s distinctive style is characterised by his specific recurring characters: the sleeping melon-seller, the skinny boy in the street and heavily-modelled women carrying their babies and chatting across their balconies; and his distinctive motifs: the expressive sunflowers, heavily patterned carts, juicy vibrant fruit, even the precarious knifes, included for the quality of their pleasing abstract shapes and the ‘frisson’ of tension they provide against the soft flesh of fruit. Travels to the country of his parents’ birth exposed him to these subjects which he captured in sketchbooks before adding his own ‘point-of-view’ in the studio, evolving his types: ‘it happened just by observation really, and by exaggeration and selection.’ (Keller, V., & Young, C., Alberto Morrocco, Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 1993, p. 62) But the most immediate thing that Italy brought him was the bright light and hot colours of the Mediterranean; the vibrant and sizzling pinks, oranges and yellows that he contrasts against the cool but bright blues and greens. We are transported away from the muted tones of Scotland, and his earlier restrained palette, to a land and culture where the climate allows for life to be lived outside, the fruit is ripe and delicious and siestas are required to avoid the strength of the midday sun. It makes sense, then, that his paintings are so enduringly popular and why he has been described at times as a hedonistic painter, an artist concerned particularly with life’s pleasures.
Yet, the artist himself admits that at times all that vibrancy must be balanced, not unlike a pleasing and successful composition, and that even he can ‘eventually become almost sated with powerful colour and feel a need to refresh myself by using colour in a sort of minor key as a kind of relief - it’s almost a physical thing.’ (Keller, V., Young, C., p.58) Siesta is a dramatic, statement of a painting, painted on a significant scale. It has power in its quietness, the presence of its restraint. Morrocco depicts his favoured heavily modelled figures, their sculptural, rounded limbs asserting their space against a calm sea of grey and over the gently undulating white drapery. A siesta is a moment of rest, an escape from the heat of the day, and this is an escape for the figures and for us too, a moment to sink into, a calm celebration of form and balance. It feels classical, almost timeless, yet the hints of Morrocco’s ‘point of view’ endure, his beloved sunflowers present and fresh fruit acknowledged in the considered trio of pears. This is just a cooler, calmer version of Morrocco’s world and though he may be painting in a minor key, the result is major.
