Afro
1912 Udine
1976 Zürich
Born as Afro Basaldella in Udine in 1912, Afro studied at first at the art schools in Venice and Florence before receiving his maturità artistica in 1931. He had his first solo exhibition at the del Milione gallery in Milan in 1932. From 1935/36 Afro participated regularly in the Quadriennale in Rome and the Venice Biennale. Between 1936 and 1939 his main commissions were for murals in public and private buildings in Udine, Rhodes, Peschiera and Rome, where he settled in 1938. From 1941 until 1944 Afro held a chair for mosaic painting in Venice and was a member of the Resistenza. After numerous solo exhibitions in Italy, the artist had his first exhibition in New York. Inspired by Arshile Gorky's work during quite a long stay in America, Afro now developed his own distinctive style. Afro, who had hitherto kept away from the Italian artists' groups with programmes, joined forces two years later with Moreni and the early members of the 'Fronte nuovo delle Arti' - Corpora, Morlotti, Birolli, Santomaso, Turcato and Vedova - to form the 'Gruppo degli Otto'. In 1957/58 Afro was appointed to a post at Mills College in Oakland, California; during that time he did the large mural for the UNESCO building in Paris. In the years that followed Afro worked mainly in Italy although he also travelled extensively in the US. In 1971 ill health forced him to give up the teaching assignment he had embarked on in 1968 at the ABA in Florence. From 1970 Afro devoted himself intensively to print-making but, after a brief productive interlude, fell seriously ill again in 1973/74. The artist died in Zurich in 1976. Afro's work, which received numerous awards, went through many stylistic developments. His early works from the 1930s are still rooted in Venetian tradition. From 1937, however, he explored Cubism, especially Picasso and George Braque's paintings. During the 1940s expressionist and post-cubist elements surface in his work together with influences from the Roman School. After suffering artist's block in 1946/47, when he did virtually no pictures at all, Afro ultimately turned to abstraction based on both Analytical and Synthetic Cubism. However, he did not arrive at his mature style until his encounter with the Abstract Expressionist Gorky in the US led him to assign quintessential significance to light and colour. Afro's later work is distinguished on the one hand by increasing harmony and tranquillity; on the other, by consolidation of form and subtle refinement of handling. Afro is one of the most important Italian exponents of abstract art.
