Afro Basaldella
African Basaldella, also known under the stage name Afro, ( born March 4, 1912 in Udine, † July 24, 1976 in Zurich ) was an Italian painter.
Life
African Basaldella studied in Florence and Venice and graduated in 1931 at the art school in Venice. In October 1928 he exhibited together with his two brothers, Dino, Mirko and Alessandro Filipponi his works of art on the I ° Mostra della Scuola d' friulana avanguardia (I ° exhibition of avant-garde Friulian school) from; The following year, on the XX ° Esposizione dell'Opera Bevilacqua La Masa ( Venice). In the same year (1929 ) he was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to go to Rome, where he met Scipione ( Gino Bonichi ), Mario and Corrado Cagli Mafai.
In 1932 he spent some time in Milan, where he frequented the studio of Arturo Martini and his brother Mirko. The following year he exhibited at the Galeria del Milione in Milan. In 1937 he opened his first solo exhibition at the Galleria della Cometa in Rome. One of the paintings in the exhibition entitled " L' Autoritratto " was bought by the National Gallery of Modern Art ( Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna ). In 1938 he participated in the Venice Biennale with the artworks " Pastori " and " Oreste ". In 1941 he had a joint exhibition with Pippo Rizzo, Purificato, Castelli, Peyrot and his brother Mirko in the Galleria di Roma. With six works he took in 1942 at the Venice Biennale in part. In the years 1944 to 1945 his works were marked by a striking cubist influence, the majority brought forth still lifes and portraits; be defined his abstract phase in between 1948 and 1949.
In 1950 he began work with the Italian-American Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York, who regularly almost every 2 years exhibited his works of art from that time until 1968.
Member of the Italian artists group Gruppo degli Otto, he was from 1952.
In New York, in 1955 twelve works were exhibited, including " Libro giallo " and " Ragazzo col tacchino ", which were later bought by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the same year he participated in the documenta 1 in Kassel.
Together with other artists, including Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Luciano and Mirko Minguzzi selected by Andrew Carnduff Richie, he took at the 1956 exhibition "The New decade. 22 European painters and sculptors " part. The exhibition was shown in New York, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the same year he participated with its own exhibition space at the XXVII ° Venice Biennale, where he was awarded the prize for the best Italian painters. 1958 exhibitions in the USA in Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. He paints the mural " Giardino della Speranza " for the UNESCO building in Paris. At the second Documenta in 1959, he took part again. In 1960 he wins in New York Guggenheim Prize for his work " L' isola del Giglio ."
In 1964 a renewed participation in a documenta documenta III in Kassel.
In 1966 he taught at the Fine Arts Institute in Sarasota / Florida along with Syd Solomon, Conrad Marca - Relli, Larry Rivers and James Brook. Basatella held in 1967 a course in painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti ( Academy of Fine Arts) of Florence, the he continued until 1973.
In 1971 he was in Rome the "Premio Nazionale di pittura Presidente della Repubblica ".