Rome in the 1950s celebrated the end of the war with a burst of creative energy. Hollywood actress Virginia Campbell and her husband John Becker made it their home and established a place in which writers, actors and painters met and were entertained by marionette shows, written by John and designed, produced and directed by Ginny. Among their guests, and sometime participants in the productions, were Robert Graves, Alice B. Toklas, Karen Blixen, Ingrid Bergman and Federico Fellini.

Domenico Gnoli was amongst those who came into the Beckers’ orbit. Now recognised as one of the most important Italian artists of the twentieth century, Gnoli had his first solo show of drawings in Rome in 1951 at the La Cassapanca gallery, and during the years that followed his energetic and ambitious production extended to include scenography for theatres in Rome, Zurich, Paris and London. In spite of his success as a set designer, by 1956 Gnoli decided to move away from the theatre and concentrate instead on drawing and painting. His first solo show in New York opened at the Sagittarius gallery and a year later he moved to the city, while all the time maintaining close links with Rome. During one return trip to the Italian capital, in advance of his 1958 exhibition at the Obelisco Gallery, he created two painted sets for the Virginia Campbell’s marionette theatre. Made specifically for the only production without a dialogue, ‘The Spanish Ballet’, Gnoli achieves his signature rough-surface by mixing of sand with the pigment.

This work is promised as a loan to the forthcoming Domenico Gnoli exhibition at the Fondazione Prada, Milan, which will run from the 28 October 2021 - 28 February 2022.