Afro Basaldella, Ponte dei Pugni, 1975

Afro Basaldella also known as Afro (Afro Libio Basaldella, Udine, Italy 1912 - Zürich, Switzerland 1976)

Born in Udine in 1912, Afro initially studied in Florence, before completing a diploma in painting in Venice in 1931.

The following year, he moved to Milan, with his brother Mirko, where he met Arturo Martini, Renato Birolli and Ennio Morlotti, artists with whom he exhibited at the Million Gallery, where he held his first solo exhibition.

In 1935, he participated in the second Rome Quadrennial, with works inspired by Corrado Cagli and the Roman School.

In 1936, the artwork commissioned from Afro for the Balilla National Opera in Udine was largely dismantled by the fascist regime, accused of not adequately celebrating the political party.

That same year, the Comet Gallery offered him another solo exhibition, his last commitment in Rome before moving to Paris in 1937, where he was strongly influenced by the Impressionist style.

In 1938, Afro participated in the Venice Biennale, where he stayed during World War II to teach mosaic at the Academy of Fine Arts. During this period, Afro created the large mosaic for the EUR Palace in Rome.

The still lifes and portraits from this period have an evident Cubist influence, with a marked shift towards the abstract.

During his trip to the United States, he came into contact with the Art Informel movement, his later paintings were influenced by the work of Arshile Gorky and the action painting of Jackson Pollock.

In 1950, he held a solo exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York and, only two years later, he joined the Group of Eight, with whom he exhibited, in 1956, at the Venice Biennale. He won the prize for best Italian painter.

In 1958, he was commissioned to paint a large-scale mural for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

In the 1960s, he received the Guggenheim Award in New York and the President of the Republic Prize at the San Luca Academy in Rome.

He taught painting at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence until 1973.

Afro died in Zurich in 1976.