Mirko Basaldella biography

Mirko Basaldella was an Italian sculptor and painter, brother of the renowned artists Afro and Dino Basaldella. He was born in Udine in 1910 and trained at the Liceo Artistico di Venezia, the Accademia di Firenze, and finally at the Scuola d'Arte di Monza. He was a student in the studio of Arturo Martini until 1933 when he decided to move to Rome, where he came into contact with artists of the Roman School such as Cagli, Scipione, Fazzini, Alberti, Mazzacurati, and Leoncillo.
Mirko Basaldella holds his first solo exhibition in 1935 at the Galleria La Cometa, then takes a trip to Paris that changes his artistic vision, which was too anchored to Mediterranean culture. Accompanied by his brother Afro, he discovers the new European artistic trends that were quickly emerging, and he is decidedly fascinated by them.
Back in Rome, he joined the Milanese group Corrente.
In 1947, he held an exhibition at the Galleria Knoedler in New York, which was so successful that it was repeated for the next two years.
In the following two years, he created the three gates of the Fosse Ardeatine, a bronze work that impresses with its grandeur and attention to detail.
His is a continuous quest for modernity, which leads him to abandon traditional materials in favor of more innovative elements, such as iron wires combined with concrete, metal meshes, and current plastics.
Interesting is the phase that subsequently involves him, imbued with Eastern culture and exotic influences. Mirko Basaldella's production is therefore enriched by totems, subjects dating back to mythical iconography, and reconstructions of artifacts belonging to ancient civilizations such as the Assyrians, the Hebrews, the pre-Columbians, and the peoples inhabiting Mesopotamia.
Until 1960, the protagonists were therefore copper and brass, cut to create particular shapes, at the same time original and influenced by the culture of centuries before.
Since 1957, Mirko Basaldella became the director of the Design Work Shop at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, at the University of Cambridge, opening himself to the technological and mechanical influence that was permeating America in those years. However, his artistic research certainly could not lack a reference to the Native Americans, whom he had the opportunity to study closely and incorporate into his works. Therefore, the sculpture assumes a dual significance, as a push towards modernity but also as a recovery of the archaeological aspect, through a rediscovery of the sacred and almost magical dimension of art.
During this decade, Mirko Basaldella further demonstrates his ability to shape all kinds of materials, from scrap materials to bricks, including industrial elements that were beginning to establish themselves in the art world. This period includes a series of small bronzes and painted woods, based on biblical episodes and rich in subtle cultural references.
Mirko Basaldella dies in 1969 in Cambridge.