Domenico (Mino) DELLE SITE - Sintesi di virata (Synthesis of a Turn)

Date	1931
Period	20th century
Origin	Italy
Medium	Watercolour, Framing lines in green ink, On paper, Laid down onto a sheet of black paper
Dimensions	9.3 x 9.3 cm (3⁵/₈ x 3⁵/₈ inches)
Gallery	Stephen Ongpin Fine Art

Description
Technical

Drawn in 1931, this small watercolour was the first work that Mino Delle Site showed to Enrico Prampolini, during the exhibition Prima Mostra di Aeropittura - Omaggio Futurista ai trasvolatori in Rome. At this time Delle Site was just seventeen and still at art school, which may explain why he decided to erase his name and the date referring to his school class at the bottom of the sheet.

This watercolour is a study for a larger painting of the same title and composition, painted in tempera on board in 1931, which is today in the Pinacoteca Provinciale in Bari, to which it was donated by the artist in 1987.

234 x 153 mm. (9 1/4 x 6 in.) [backing sheet]

Date: 1931
Period: 20th century
Origin: Italy
Medium: Watercolour, Framing lines in green ink, On paper, Laid down onto a sheet of black paper
Signature: An erased signature and date Delle Site 31at the lower right centre.
Titled SINTESI DI VIRATA in silver pen on the backing sheet, below the image.

Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.3 cm (3⁵/₈ x 3⁵/₈ inches)
Provenance: The studio of the artist
Thence by descent to a private collection, Rome.

Literature: A. B., ‘Mino Delle Site’, Sudpuglia, March 1987, illustrated p.178; Luigi Carlo Fontana, ‘Continuità futurista di Mino Delle Site’, Salento: arte e storia, Gallipoli, 1987, illustrated p.119; Gino Agnese, ‘Incontri con Delle Site’, in Giuseppe Appella, ed., Verso le avanguardie: Gli anni del Futurismo in Puglia 1909-1944, exhibition catalogue, Bari and Taranto, 1998, illustrated p.336; Renato Miracco, ed., Mino Delle Site: Alle Radici dell’Aeropittura 1931-1934, exhibition catalogue, Warsaw and Cracow, 2001, illustrated p.25; Christine Farese Sperken, ed., Cataloghi dei musei e gallerie d’Italia. La Pinacoteca Provinciale di Bari. Vol.II: Opere dell’Ottocento e nella prima metà del Novecento, Rome, 2005, Vol.II, p.561, under no.592 (entry by Francesco Picca); Chiara Letizia Delle Site, ed., Mino Delle Site, 2006, illustrated p.43; Domenico Guzzi, Mino Delle Site: Forme assolute della geometria, Rome, 2008, illustrated p.12; Chiara Letizia Delle Site, ‘...Ricostruire l’Universo’, in Chiara Letizia Delle Site, ed., Mino Delle Site: Futurismo fra Arte e Tecnologia nel Centenario, Perugia, 2009, illustrated; Chiara Letizia Delle Site, ed., Centenario Mino Delle Site, 2014, illustrated p.41.

Exhibitions: Lecce, Museo Provinciale, Mino Delle Site: Aeropittura e oltre, dal 1930, 1989, no.2; Bari, Castello Svevo and Taranto, Castello Aragonese, Verso le avanguardie: Gli anni del Futurismo in Puglia 1909-1944, 1998; Warsaw, Wloski Instytut Kultury, and Cracow, Mino Delle Site: Alle Radici dell’Aeropittura 1931-1934, 2001, no.4; Lecce, Museo Provinciale ‘S. Castromediano’, Mino Delle Site, 2006, no.59.

Categories: Paintings, Drawings & Prints