?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
ALFONSO IANNELLI (1888-1965) SASCHA PIATOV. Tempera, metallic ink & pencil showcard. Circa 1913. 38 1/2x28 1/2 inches, 97 3/4x72 1/2 cm. Condition A-: darkening in lower right text; text panel affixed at bottom; template windows cut out above text, as issued. Painted on board. Matted and framed. In his early 20s, Alfonso Iannelli began his artistic career designing the lobby windows for the Orpheum Theater in L.A. Impressed by his window illustrations, they commissioned him to paint lobby "showcards" to promote the different vaudeville acts that came through. These painted displays all had rectangular cut-outs that allowed the theater to adjust the photos of performers and show dates each time a new act arrived. Iannalli described these projects himself - "These were showcards when I first saw them, but it seemed to me this was a wholly proper field for an artist to solve quickly and the legitimate avenue for the best work of any artist." During this time, Iannelli received a sculptural commission from Frank Lloyd Wright to collaborate on the Midway Gardens in Chicago. In this image for Sascha Piatov, Iannelli playfully depicts the juggling clown, with 2-dimensional circles representing the balls, and rows of dots abstractly suggesting their movement around the space, positioned behind the graceful, sharply diagonal form of the ballerina. Sascha Piatov was a vaudeville performer, who debuted in "Roly Poly" on Broadway in 1912; he later created his own programs (like the one advertised in Iannelli's work), danced with the Ballet Russe and other famous companies, and taught dance classes in upstate New York. Iannelli p. 24.
