LARGE ABSTRACT CAT SCULPTURE BY ALVINO BAGNI (ITALY)

A rarely seen sculpture of an abstracted cat by master potter Alvino Bagni in his Autumn Sunset glaze. The sculpture is large, standing 13 ¼" tall, with a depth of approximately 11" and 8" wide. Sculpted and painted entirely by hand, this is surely one of Bagni's most labor-intensive creations. ALVINO BAGNI (1919–2009) was born in 1919 in the quiet hamlet of Lastra a Signa in the environs of Florence in Tuscany. His boyhood and adolescence were spent without his father who, as a communist, had been exiled under Italian fascism. Young Bagni took an early interest in pottery, a regionally important industry. He studied the basics of drawing and clay modeling under the tutelage of sculptor Torello Santini (1875–1946) and took a job in the workshop of Arnaldo Pugi’s ceramics factory in nearby Ponte a Signa. Bagni had a stint at Bitossi Ceramiche for a few years in nearby Montelupo Fiorentino, where famed ceramist Aldo Londi (1911–2003) took him under wing. In 1956 Pugi helped Bagni financ