05/09/2001
by Andrew Moore

The 2^nd of September saw the closing of the exhibition Oggi per Domani which has been held in Lugano since May 2001. The exhibition featured 80 works of art from five contemporary artists: Daniel Buren, John Chamberlain, Tony Cragg, Mario Merz and Giulio Paolini, which have come from the BSI Art Collection (Banca della Svizzera-Italiana) and presented at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. The Museo Cantonale d'Arte has already held an exhibition dedicated to contemporary corporate art, that of Banca Migros, Lugano thus showing the closening ties between business and contemporary art. Interestingly BSI does not offer commercial art services to the public, but has formed this collection as a purely cultural initiative. In 1998, Assicurazioni Generali SpA, one of Italy’s largest insurance groups, became the new owner of BSI.

The BSI Art Collection comprises two major areas of interest: the Old Masters collection, mainly exhibited at the Lugano Headquarters of BSI, in the 18^th century Palazzo Riva and the Contemporary Art collection, which is displayed at various BSI branches in Switzerland, such as Lugano, Locarno, Bellinzona, St. Moritz, Zurich, Lausanne and Geneva. Besides the Oggi per Domani pieces, the bank’s collection includes Lawrence Carroll, Bernd Koberling, Fausto Melotti, Mimmo Paladino and Lawrence Weiner. Such a strong showing of Arte Povera and Transavanguardia artists is a particular focus for BSI who have also sought to buy into international artists who work with "ready-mades".

Tony Cragg’s is such an artist who has on many occasions worked with splintered industrial matter and waste (as well as ceramic sculptures) providing an insight into his social concerns, such as Factory Fantasies II, showing stencilled cut objects from the "shopfloor". The ten wood pieces sold for $ 10,170 (€ 11,150) at its low-end estimate at Christie’s, London in February 2001. Prices for the British artist’s works stay in the main below $ 20,000 (€ 21,870), and hammer prices above $ 50,000 (€ 54,670) are rarer, although nearly ten years ago a set of sculptures looking like enormous rusted gas cylinders, entitled Three Cast Bottles sold for $ 95,000 (€ 103,870) against an estimate of $ 80,000-120,000 (€ 87,470-131,210) at Christie’s, New York in 1992. Cragg was selected with his sculpture Wirbelsäule (a bronze articulated column) to be placed in the Piazza Grande in Lugano to celebrate BSI’s 125^th anniversary in the town. The bank likes to refer to their collection as being "work in progress", so BSI aren’t ruling out future initiatives such as this.

Daniel Buren, a French artist works with linear colour bands enjoys lesser values at auction. Consisting of acrylic strips on fabric, the works which are sometimes reductively cut, sell in prices from $ 8,000-10,000 (€ 8,750-10,930). However the artist has been producing the same formats for the last twenty years and hence values are at low to medium levels. An example being Untitled, an acrylic on fabric with its bottom right corner removed. The 164 x 139 cm work sold for $ 10,170 (€ 11,150) on reserve at Christie’s London in February 2001 against an estimate of $ 14,500-21,800 (€ 15,900-23,900)

Also in the BSI Art Collection is artist Mario Merz, a leading figure of the Arte Povera movement who uses striking combinations of material. He was recently included in the Tate Modern, London exhibition Zero to Infinity. Merz’s reputation is further enhanced with high sales at auction. Notably on the 16^th May 2001, a stuffed crocodile and neon tubes (Coccodrillo con progressione di Fibonacci) sold for $ 85,675 (€ 93,930) at Sotheby’s, New York, well over its top-end estimate of $ 70,000 (€ 76,750). Often seen at auction are his works on paper which vary from $ 5,000-10,000 (€ 5,480-10,960) with sculptures higher in price. John Chamberlain, a US artist, also utilises ready-mades, notably old car parts which he then recuts and paints. An example being Idle Worship which is another one of the works on show at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte Moderna, Lugano.

Italian artist, Giulio Paolini (the fifth of the Oggi per Domani artists), is another member of the Arte Povera movement. He is less easy to define in terms of subject matter, utilising a wide variety of media from collage photographs to splintered mobiles and a series of imitations of classical busts produced with plaster. His Orfeo, a plaster sculpture dating from 1998 is one of the works on show in Oggi per Domani and belongs to this genre. A similar work, L’altra figura from 1984 sold at Sotheby’s, London in their Italian sale in October 2000 for $ 58,770 (€ 64,500) against an estimate of $ 17,440-21,790 (€ 19,120–23,890).