Bronze bust of Dora Bassi 1970 by Alessandro Manzoni

Brown bust of Dora Bassi 1970 by Alessandro Manzoni, half-length portrait, with bow tie and a pleased facial expression. The bronze cast has a beautiful dark patina and is mounted on a black marble base, signed on the right collar corner of Bassi's coat, 1970. In perfect condition.

Artist Dora Bassi's (1921-2007) work, a Friulian sculptor and painter, was the subject and witness of major artistic movements of the post-war period. She enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1939) and Venice (1941-1944), studying under Felice Carena and Giuseppe Cesetti, learning lessons from 20th-century Italy and the plasto-constructive function of color. Immediately after the war, she joined Neorealism, born from the remnants of the fading New Front of Art, and later the Florence-based group “Numero,” which gathered leading representatives of abstract art. In the 1960s, she opened a workshop-laboratory in Udine to create sculptures and bas-reliefs from terracotta, later working with bronze, iron, and steel for various public and private clients.

Professor of sculpture at the Brera Academy (1971-1991), she participated in experimental programs for curriculum renewal. Besides her ongoing artistic production and exhibitions in Italy and abroad, Dora Bassi also engaged in intensive research and studies on contemporary art. She writes for magazines and catalogs, dedicating herself to promoting lesser-known artists in Italy such as Charlotte Salomon, Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jenny Holzer. Until 1991, she led the DARS (Woman Art Research and Experimentation) group. Since the 1980s, her stylistic code has influenced her painting and sculpture, ultimately leading to works of great technical refinement. She passed away in Udine in 2007.

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