Major show unites Basaldella brothers
(ANSA) - Udine, August 2 - A major exhibition in northern Italy offers the first comprehensive insight into the work of three 20th-century Italian artists and brothers, the Basaldellas.
Internationally renowned Abstract painter Afro Basaldella was the best known of the trio but his brothers Mirko and Dino, both sculptors, have also won considerable recognition.
Villa Manin in the hamlet of Passariano, near Udine, staged a much smaller look at the Basaldellas' work 23 years ago.
Since then, there have been numerous exhibitions on Afro (1912-1976), as well as a few on either Dino (1909-1977) or Mirko (1910-1969). But this new exhibition unites an astonishing 170 works by all three Basaldellas, as well as offering an overview of all the latest research into their art.
For example, the exhibition includes several paintings only recently identified by art historians as the work of Afro. The show maps out the entire artistic development of the brothers, whose father, Leo Basadella, died in 1919 when they were all still young boys.
It looks at their shared beginnings in Udine, where they first studied art together, to their time in Monza and Milan, and eventually to Rome, where Afro and Mirko set up studios.
As well as tracing the individual development of each artist, the exhibition also seeks to draw out the relationship between the three and how their work impacted one another, both directly and indirectly.
Dino, the eldest of the three brothers, experimented with chromatic effects throughout his career and is known for his use of minimal materials, often salvaged from industrial waste heaps and used machine parts. He was particularly influenced by the post-Cubist and Surrealist movements, which he eventually incorporated into his own, unique style.
Mirko, who spent his final years teaching sculpture in the US, was best known for his monumental bronze gates to the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, which commemorate the Italian Resistance of World War II.
Like Dino, he worked in a variety of materials, including cement, plastic, styrofoam and wood, although he was particularly fond of bronze.
He was strongly influenced by so-called primitive iconology, incorporating totems, mythical figures and Assyrian, Mesopotamian and early Native American artifacts into his work.
Afro was the most commercially successful of the three brothers, with work exhibited when he was just 16.
By 18, he had won a scholarship to study art in Rome and had already had paintings displayed in three Biennials by 1949 when he burst onto the US scene. He experimented with a variety of styles during his life, from early forays into Expressionism through Abstract art, which constituted the core of his work, before eventually returning to more solid form in the 1970s. Today he is best known for his distinctive washes of pale and vivid color overlaid with abstract form. 'I Basaldella: Dino, Mirko, Afro' runs at Villa Manin until August 29. photo: the 1956 painting 'Burnt Shadow' by di Afro Basaldella
Internationally renowned Abstract painter Afro Basaldella was the best known of the trio but his brothers Mirko and Dino, both sculptors, have also won considerable recognition.
Since then, there have been numerous exhibitions on Afro (1912-1976), as well as a few on either Dino (1909-1977) or Mirko (1910-1969). But this new exhibition unites an astonishing 170 works by all three Basaldellas, as well as offering an overview of all the latest research into their art.
For example, the exhibition includes several paintings only recently identified by art historians as the work of Afro. The show maps out the entire artistic development of the brothers, whose father, Leo Basadella, died in 1919 when they were all still young boys.
It looks at their shared beginnings in Udine, where they first studied art together, to their time in Monza and Milan, and eventually to Rome, where Afro and Mirko set up studios.
As well as tracing the individual development of each artist, the exhibition also seeks to draw out the relationship between the three and how their work impacted one another, both directly and indirectly.
Dino, the eldest of the three brothers, experimented with chromatic effects throughout his career and is known for his use of minimal materials, often salvaged from industrial waste heaps and used machine parts. He was particularly influenced by the post-Cubist and Surrealist movements, which he eventually incorporated into his own, unique style.
Mirko, who spent his final years teaching sculpture in the US, was best known for his monumental bronze gates to the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, which commemorate the Italian Resistance of World War II.
Like Dino, he worked in a variety of materials, including cement, plastic, styrofoam and wood, although he was particularly fond of bronze.
He was strongly influenced by so-called primitive iconology, incorporating totems, mythical figures and Assyrian, Mesopotamian and early Native American artifacts into his work.
Afro was the most commercially successful of the three brothers, with work exhibited when he was just 16.
By 18, he had won a scholarship to study art in Rome and had already had paintings displayed in three Biennials by 1949 when he burst onto the US scene. He experimented with a variety of styles during his life, from early forays into Expressionism through Abstract art, which constituted the core of his work, before eventually returning to more solid form in the 1970s. Today he is best known for his distinctive washes of pale and vivid color overlaid with abstract form. 'I Basaldella: Dino, Mirko, Afro' runs at Villa Manin until August 29. photo: the 1956 painting 'Burnt Shadow' by di Afro Basaldella