Success for Flashback 2021, closes with 18,000 visitors. Here's who sold and what

After a year-long stop imposed by the pandemic, the return of Flashback, Turin’s ancient and contemporary art fair, was a great success with the public and beyond. In fact, the fair brought as many as 18,000 visitors to the spaces of the former Dogali Barracks from Nov. 4 to 7, who walked with great participation through the stands set up in the historic building, which this year hosted the fair directed by Ginevra Pucci and Stefania Poddighe for the first time. “The edition went beyond our expectations,” Pucci and Poddighe comment, “both in terms of the quality of the works and in terms of the participating public and sales. But the greatest satisfaction was definitely noticing the amazement in people’s eyes at seeing a space like the former Dogali Barracks come to life again thanks to art. Right now, however, what we regret is that this beautiful space from tomorrow, will return to oblivion. We take this opportunity to offer food for thought to the institutions and entities, such as Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, owners of the structure, so that the possibility of temporary use of the property becomes a quick and easy practice for all those involved in art and culture.”

At the Dogali Barracks, more than 30 Italian galleries exhibited, both long-established and recently founded and therefore directed by young gallerists such as Flavio Gianassi Fine Art of London, Umberto Benappi, Luca Cena (White Lands) and Caretto & Occhinegro of Turin, Miriam of Penta Fine Arts of Rome. The invitation-only preview welcomed many collectors, museum directors and insiders, mostly from northern Italy but with attendance from other regions and neighboring France and Switzerland. This edition also marks an increase in audience compared to the last edition in attendance in 2019 (and consider moreover that in 2019 there was no Covid-19 pandemic). Thus an unexpected result that satisfies the directors and bodes well for this gradual recovery.

Along with the discovery of the works of art presented by the Flashback galleries in this edition, the audience delved into the stories of the three exhibitions (the first by artist Enrico Bertelli, author of the guiding image of this edition, then the presentation of the posters of Opera Viva Barriera di Milano, and finally the documentation of the project/workshop Artist of the Quarter by Alessandro Bulgini), and they lingered in front of the images of the video Stanze by the De Serio brothers, or listened to the talks that addressed the themes of collecting and public art and learned about art through the workshops for children.

Sales

Many galleries kept sales confidential, in part because negotiations are often confidential and take a long time to finalize. However, some exhibitors were able to close sales directly at the fair. Among the most satisfied was Rome’s Aleandri Arte Moderna gallery (also featured in our in-depth feature on the 19th and 20th centuries at the fair), which sold several works to old and new clients, including Mario Sironi ’s 1919 Manichino Metafisico, Antonietta Raphaël’s 1937Ermafrodito and Sexto Canegallo’s 1917 Notturno con line atmosferiche. Caretto & Occhinegro of Turin, a young gallery specializing in Flemish art, sold a work by Denijs van Alsloot, Winter Landscape with Escape to Egypt, oil on circular copper from about 1610, for 60,000 euros. Rome’s Carlo Virgilio Gallery, in its first presence on the Turin scene, satisfactorily finalized the sale of five works to new clients. Verona’s Galleria dello Scudo, whose booth featured important works by Mimmo Paladino, reports having sold two painted terracottas by the Campania artist for 80,000 euros each.

Again, Schreiber Collezioni (Turin) sold a terracotta horse from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 A.D.) at around 10,000 euros to a new customer it met at the fair. Galleria Russo in Rome finalized acquisitions to historic clients, as well as new ones, of works by Giacomo Balla. White Lands (Turin) sold a Self-Portrait by Gerardo Dottori from 1932 and the work Composizioni by Enrico Prampolini from 1956 to new clients. Biasutti & Biasutti (Turin) finalized sales of works by international artists between €10,000 and €50,000, while Flavio Pozzallo (Oulx), to a client acquired two years ago just at Flashback, sold a gilded wood work, a Pair of Cerophore Angels by the Master of Magione from 1550 -1570, and garnered the interest of an institution for another important work. Gallery owner Miriam di Penta (Rome) reports that she sold two precious objects right away: a miniature on French parchment late 1600s by Charles Lebrun with a Bulgari gilded silver frame from the 1920s-30s, and a Tuscan paesina stone from the early 1600s with Christ walking on water. There is also much interest in two Neoclassical heads on paper by ambito Gandolfi, circa 1770-1880, and on Orazio Fidani with an intriguing portrait of a favorite page of Grand Duke Ferdinando II de Medici. Other galleries, such as Luigi Caretto of Turin, and the Alessandro Bagnai Gallery of Foiano della Chiana, are in negotiations with established collectors for some fine works.

Also satisfied was Marco Longari, who was present at Flashback with a gold background by the Florentine Giovanni di Tano Fei (documented in Florence from 1386 to 1402), who has exhibited at the most important European fairs. This is how the Milanese gallerist commented on his experience, “Finally we are back talking to friends and collectors who can once again admire works de visu, and at Flashback, the visits and new contacts were many! I observed selected works between antique and modern with more presence of the latter.” Among the newcomers was Flavio Gianassi’s London gallery, which brought “the beautiful across the centuries” to Flashback in its debut: from a pair of panels by Cecco di Pietro for the church of San Francesco in Pisa to a 1974 work by Paolo Icaro that dialogues with the musculature of a 16th-century St. Sebastian attributed to Girolamo Genga. “I am sure,” he commented, “that the large audience that visited Flashback was able to appreciate the much effort and research behind every single work of art presented by me and my colleagues at the fair.”

Pictured: a moment at the opening

Success for Flashback 2021, closes with 18,000 visitors. Here's who sold and what

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