Mirko Basaldella biography
Mirko Basaldella
Mirko Basaldella was an Italian sculptor and painter, brother of the well-known artists Afro and Dino Basaldella. He was born in Udine in 1910 and trained at the Artistic High School of Venice, at the Academy of Florence and finally at the School of Art of Monza. He was a student at the studio of Arturo Martini until 1933 when he decided to move to Rome where he came into contact with the 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 makes 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 rapidly emerging, becoming decidedly fascinated by them.
Back in Rome, he joins the Milanese group Corrente.
In 1947 he holds an exhibition at the Galleria Knoedler in New York, which was so successful that it was repeated for the following two years.
In the following two years he creates the three gates of the Fosse Ardeatine, a bronze work that impresses for its grandeur and attention to detail.
His is a continuous search aimed at modernity, which leads him to abandon traditional materials in favor of more innovative elements, such as wire combined with cement, metal meshes, and current plastics.
An interesting phase that follows is imbued with Eastern culture and exotic influences. Mirko Basaldella's production is thus enriched by totems, subjects drawn from 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 are therefore copper and brass, cut to create particular shapes, at the same time original and influenced by the culture of centuries before.
From 1957 Mirko Basaldella becomes 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, a reference to the Native Americans, whom he had the opportunity to study closely and reinterpret in his works, could not be missing in his artistic research. Sculpture therefore takes on a dual meaning, pushing towards modernity but also recovering 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 every kind of material, starting from scrap materials to bricks, including industrial elements that were beginning to establish themselves in the art world. This latter period includes a series of small bronzes and painted woods, based on biblical episodes and rich in fine cultural references.
Mirko Basaldella dies in 1969 in Cambridge.