Per Leonardo Sinisgalli..

Rome: For the Artist, 1962. 36.5cm. Folded sheet of heavy handmade paper in the form of a menu, bearing a signed and numbered (14 of 15) drypoint etching by Caruso to the front panel, and a handwritten bill of fare within, in pencil. The verso bears the signatures of 14 people present at the dinner given in celebration of Italian poet Leonardo Sinisgalli.Light foxing to the left hand edge of the etching, and a little soiling in places. A very good, clean example.

Produced in a series of 9 artist's proofs, and 15 signed and numbered prints for the attendees of the dinner. The etching is a typical Caruso blizzard of imagery; with international (truncated) capital cities represented by their most well known landmarks (New York by the Empire State Building, Rome by the Coliseum etc. and a small sketch of the pyramids, a reference to Sinisgalli's visit to Cairo in the 1950's with Giuseppe Ungaretti) a lightly caricatured portrait of Sinisgalli riding a rocket powered bicycle from his home town of Montemurro in the bottom left, with screws, bolts and mathematical references to his highly regarded engineering and advertising career (Sinisgalli was known as Italy's "Poet Engineer") blending into a series of pastiches of work by other artists; a bull in the style of Picasso, a chicken bearing the name Seurat, a typewriter next to the name of Eliot etc.

The top left is a representation of an ever expanding cloud containing the names of a number of Sinisgalli's friends, contemporaries and collaborators, including a number of people present at the dinner (which most probably took place at the café Taormina) including Libero De Libero, Enrico Falqui, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and a small reference to Lidia Olivatti, Caruso's partner at the time. The rear panel of the menu bears the signatures of the artisitic attendees including Leonardo Sinisgalli, Jonathan Shahn, Enrico Falqui, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Filippo Auti, Filippo Sinisgalli, Ben Shahn is listed as having been present , but his name is not in his hand, Libero de Libero, and a number of others that are either illegible, or lacking a relevant connection to the world of Italian art and poetry (at least that we can presently uncover). The menu is signed twice by Caruso, once on the front in blue pencil, and in ink to the rear. A beautiful and rather dramatic commemoration of friendship and deep ties of artistic connection from both European and American artists. One other example can be found in auction records, with no record in OCLC. (Inventory #: 84835)