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 corner of Bassi's coat collar, 1970. In perfect condition.

The work of artist DORA BASSI (1921-2007), a Friulian sculptor and painter, was a protagonist and witness to the main artistic movements of the second post-war period. She enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1939) and Venice (1941-1944) under the guidance of Felice Carena and Giuseppe Cesetti, studying lessons of 20th-century Italian art 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 figures of abstract art. In the 1960s, she opened a studio-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 Academy of Brera (1971-1991), she participates in experimental programs for educational renewal. Besides her ongoing artistic production and exhibitions in Italy and abroad, Dora Bassi also conducts 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 group (Woman Art Research and Experimentation). Since the 1980s, her stylistic code has influenced her painting and sculpture, ultimately resulting in highly refined works. She passed away in Udine in 2007.

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