The street acrobats (1950) cm 300×240 – Tempera su legno

Throughout his life, Dady Orsi has always loved to stop for coffee at the Savini in the Galleria. It’s a pretext to go and review one of his works from 1950. The only one of his favorites that is no longer in his possession, the Street acrobats is his largest work on wood panel, placed on the interior staircase leading to the Savini’s dining room. Through this panel, Orsi contributes to shaping the image of one of Milan’s most iconic places. The Savini is par excellence the place frequented by personalities linked to the world of opera and not only; it is for this reason that the artist agreed with Angelo Pozzi, then owner of the restaurant, an iconography linked to the performing arts. In conceiving this painting, Orsi used his knowledge as a set designer matured within the experimental group Palcoscenico, describing a precarious carriage of wandering artists, similar to those painted by both his master Aldo Carpi and his great inspirer Pablo Picasso, in the Pink Period. In spite of the precariousness of the stage, the artists show the rigor of classical dancers, in harmony with the geometric balance of the composition and the sobriety of the colours. This contrast between poverty of means and elegance tells a lot about the Milan of those years, in which the sobriety that the post-war period imposes is harmonized with the desire for civilization and culture.