First auction I attended was Christies '95, where the star lot was Martinati's To Have And Have Not 4-foglio. Probably my favourite Italian poster or Bogart poster for that matter, regardless of him being rendered with a squint. Estimated at 3-5, achieved a very healthy £14k. Only other sale I've spotted was Heritage about ten years later:
http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=624&lotNo=28289#Photo Amazing when you see it full scale, whereas mediocre art just gets worse the bigger it is, whether foreign or 6-sheet. On 26 Dec 2013, at 17:08, Paolo Zelati wrote: > I couldn't agree more with you Adrian. The Italian movie poster artists used > to put a lot of "themselves" into their artworks. Their interpretations, > according to each one's different style, made the difference in terms of > emotional transport (the one you could feel looking at, let's say, The Lady > from Shanghai by Ballester or The Enforcer by Martinati). Brini, Martinati, > Capitani, Ballester, Geleng, Nano, Simeoni etc. were real painters borrowed > by the Entertainment's Industry. > > In the last few years I've been selling more and more to American collectors > and dealers but, still, the Italian posters are not for everyone. In > Columbus, this year, I've made some sales and trades but most of the dealers > (many on here too) used to tell me: "Sorry, I love these artworks, but I have > no market for them". Basically, one of the major obstacles has been correctly > pointed out by David: the size. In order to display Italian paper you need to > have a lot of wall space, and that's a fact. Another problem, for some US > buyers is the different title: even in front of a masterpiece like > Ballester's 4sh for Stage Couch, someone gets discouraged by the fact that > the big title of the poster is Ombre Rosse, something they can't immediately > connect to. Finally, the prices: the Italian good posters are very expensive. > And the reason is, just like Adrian underlined, most of the time they are way > more nice than the country of origin's paper. One example for all: the > Bogart's posters. Key Largo American 1sh is a 2000-3000$ poster. The Italian > 4sh by Martinati (L'isola di corallo), even if you can find it, worths 3 > times more. Why? Try to compare them: > > http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/5c8ea4fd and > http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/0ba2fe9c > > But still, we are talking about a 200x140 cm poster: beautiful, but very hard > to display. > > Finally I want to take this opportunity to tell you guys about a project I've > been working on since 5 years: a series of books (10) dealing with the > History of Exploitation Cinema (I'm a movie critic after all...) through the > Italian posters. From the half of the 60's till half of the 80's I collected > more than 3500 posters, that will illustrate the history of the commercial > cinema in 10 books, each one dedicated by a sub-genre. My aim is to show to > most of the the people (collectors, dealers, general audience...) that the > italian poster Art did not end with the Classic Golden Age that I mentioned > above. > > First Book will come soon: Nazi-Exploitation Cinema. Will keep you guys > posted. > > Thanks > > Paolo > > > 2013/12/26 David Kusumoto <[email protected]> > I agree with you, Adrian, completely! There was a time I was even more > snobby and close-minded than some people already regard me - a time when I > only stared at country-of-origin posters in line with my tendency to chase > "first issue of publication or first printing or true first edition books." > My "metamorphosis" so to speak - came gradually - first it was my frustration > with bootleg Star Wars posters in the 1990s and I swore off of them > completely, everything from one-sheets to inserts, with only the half-sheet, > three-sheet and six-sheets unscathed. So I moved toward Australian daybills > because the art was sometimes equal if not better than the country-of-origin > issues, particularly titles from 30-40 years plus old. I loved their > portability did a complete "180" on them regardless of country-of-origin > status and bought several from dealers like John Reid. > > Then the Italians creeped into my mind, I'm thinking particularly the Hepburn > and Hayworth posters like those from "Sabrina" and "Affair from Trinidad" and > "Lady from Shanghai." Now of course these titles would be sought after > anyway, given their Hepburn and Hayworth pedigrees, but the art from these > so-called "foreign" posters looked awesome in person. Recently, Bruce H. had > a Swedish Citizen Kane for sale. I'm sure most of you saw it - and I felt > that this was arguably the best art for this title issued in the 1940s. > > The only "slight" downside for me with Italian and French posters are the > fact that they are on the "bigger" side - which limits their display in large > quantities; at one time before our wildfires forced me to liquidate about 95% > of my collection, I had nearly 150 posters on DISPLAY (I rarely STORED what I > owned except for the hundreds of lobby and window cards I used to own) - and > I know that if I had a few Italians or French grandés hanging on my walls, I > would have want more of them but wouldn't have had the space. I've got > vaulted ceilings in my home, but I don't live in a mansion by any means. > > As it stood, my collection at its peak just had one three-sheet on display on > a 22-foot-high wall - it was from "The Quiet Man" and our glorious Sue Heim > framed it for me. Since there are no boxes to ship a 7-foot-high framed > poster, my wife and I borrowed a van and drove up to the L.A. area to visit > with Sue and then hauled it down to San Diego. Let me tell you, hanging that > monster on a huge wall while on a ladder was a miracle itself. Anyway, back > to the Italians; if I had to do it all over again, I'd chase the Italian > "Affair from Trinidad" and would have likely adopted the "less is more" > approach to collecting for display. Still, I have no regrets because > although I didn't have a Ralph DeLuca-type collection, I did have a good mix > of popular mainstream vintage titles. I envy guys like DeLuca all the time. > -d. > > Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2013 06:47:49 -0500 > From: [email protected] > Subject: Italian Apartment and much more.... > To: [email protected] > > > It is extremely interesting reading the comments and thread on the Italian > Apartment poster that Kirby has. > > In Morrie Everett's last auction there were a good handful of Italian posters > that were glossed over and went unsold. > > In my opinion the Italian movie posters are amongst some of the best art work > for the respective films. Italian movie poster artists are the equivalent of > the romantic artists of the 18th and 19th century. Often the American and > brit artists for these movie posters are quite forthright with just an image > of the principal actors and actresses...the Italian artists put a lot more > "art" into the posters and yet because the language is not English these > posters get over looked - A poster I brokered last year was for Fighter > Squadron - it was beautiful - it went to a movie poster collector yet it > would have been fantastic in the Smithsonian in the back ground of a P47 > Thunderbolt. The art was superb. > > Now I know historically the Italian's liked to sell a film and many Sean > Connery films had 007 like images on films that were made prior to Dr. No > when these films had their re releases. It was often the artist that created > the image that sold the film. > > I am very pleased that the US dealers are taking notice of Italian movie > posters there are some wonderful pieces of art that are far more attractive > than compared to the US or Brit paper. > > This Never Happened to the Other Fella.... > > Adrian Cowdry > [email protected] > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
