GIORGIO MORANDI

Italian painter Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) was a poet of the ordinary. Best known for his still lifes, Morandi arranged simple objects?he tended to favor bottles, vases and bowls, earning him the patronizing description “the Italian painter of bottles”?in seemingly simple compositions in modestly scaled paintings. Bathed in flickering light and muted, earthy color, Morandi’s subtle and contemplative paintings are disarmingly absorbing, imbued with deep feeling and a reassuring solidity. Small and sublime at the same time, his paintings are generous to attentive viewers, and have drawn rapturous praise from artists and critics alike.