Antique Italian untitled bronze sculpture of a smiling man, with mocking look wearing a bowtie, signed and dated on the back coat collar BASSI, 1970, by the Italian artist Dora Bassi (1921-2007), a sculptor and painter of Friuli, the protagonist of the main artistic movements of the Second World War. The half-bust elegant male figure has a beautiful dark patina and  is mounted on a black marble cube.  The work  comes from a Milanese private collection and is in very good condition. The artist DORA BASSI (1921-2007), a sculptress and painter from Friuli, was the protagonist and witness of the main artistic movements of the post-war period. She was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1939) and in Venice (1941-1944) under the guidance of Felice Carena and Giuseppe Cesetti. She learned the Italian twentieth century lesson and the plastic-constructive function of color. In the immediate post-war period she joined the Neorealism, born from a rib of the former Front of the Arts and then to the group ‘Number’ of Florence that collects the greatest exponents of abstractionism. In the sixties he opened a studio-workshop in Udine to make sculptures and bas-reliefs in terracotta, later in bronze, iron, steel for various public and private clients. Teacher of sculpture at the Academy of Brera (1971-1991) participates in experimental programs for the renewal of teaching. Along with her constant artistic production and exhibition activity in Italy and abroad, Dora Bassi also collaborates with an intense work of study and research on contemporary art. She writes for magazines and catalogs, and is dedicated to enhancing figures of little-known artists in Italy such as Charlotte Salomon, Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Vaaro, Georgia O’Keffe, Jenny Holzer. Presiding until 1991 the DARS group (Donna Arte Ricerca e Sperimentazione). Since the eighties his stylistic code contaminates painting and sculpture, finally arriving at a painting of great technical refinement. She died in Udine in 2007. Measures: H 54 cm W 28 cm D 16 cm.