(ANSA) - Passariano, May 14 - A major new retrospective of Italy's Basaldella brothers - abstract painter Afro and sculptors Dino and Mirko - has opened near their native city of Udine. Around 70 paintings by Afro (1912-1976) and 100 sculptures by Dino (1909-1977) and Mirko (1910-1969) are on display at Villa Manin in the town of Passariano for the show, which includes four works never seen before by the public. "It's a selection of works made at the highest level," said curator Marco Goldin. In addition to loans from Italian museums including Rome's National Gallery of Modern Art and pieces from private collections, a number of works have been contributed by various branches of the Basaldella family. "It's very emotional seeing them all together," said Dino's daughter Caterina said at the opening of the exhibition. The new show comes more than 20 years after the last exhibit focusing on the brothers at Udine's Modern Art Gallery and re-examines their work in the light of recent studies. "The idea is not to separate the three brothers but to make it possible to understand how, at times, the designs of the three were quite close," said Goldin. The exhibition "underlines the different personalities of the three artists, but also their reciprocal influences," he said. The show kicks off with a section dedicated to the brothers' beginnings in Udine, where their painter-decorator father was killed in the war in 1919 while they were still children. This section includes the brothers' early artistic efforts as well as the four works on show to the public for the first time: two self-portraits by Afro from 1931 and 1934, his Borgo San Lazzaro (1938), and Mirko's 1939 terracotta sculpture of the Italian painter Giuseppe Capogrossi. The following sections tracks the brother's steady move away from figurative and into abstract art, tracing periods they spent in Milan and Rome - characterised above all by Afro's landscape paintings of the city - through to their later years. Highlights include a room dedicated to paintings of the family, including Afro's portrait of Mirko and another of Dino's son, Leo. The youngest of the brothers, Afro first exhibited his work at the age of 16 and went on to win worldwide acclaim for what former Guggenheim Museum director James J.
Sweeney described as the "festive glorification of light and life" that characterises his paintings.
He died in Zurich aged 64. Among works by the eldest brother, Dino, on display in the Villa Manin show is the Eel Fisher (1934), a bronze sculpture of a naked fisherman holding an eel, and Spartacus (1934), a two-metre-high iron construction resembling shards of Roman breastplate.
Dino's public works include the Resistance Monument in his hometown of Udine, where he died aged 67. Sculptures by middle brother Mirko on show here include his bronze Chimera (1954), a wooden Great Red Priest (1964) and other pieces that reflect his interest in mythical icons and totems. Mirko died in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 59 while working as director of the design laboratory at Harvard University. The Basaldellas: Dino, Mirko, Afro runs at Villa Manin in Passariano until August 29. photo: Afro's Burnt Shadow, 1956