Mirko Basaldella was born in 1910 in Udine. From an early age he learned how to whittle wood together with his brothers Dino and Afro at his uncle’s shop in Udine. He studied in Venice, Florence and then in Monza, where he met Arturo Martini, an Italian master who would guide him for several years. In 1933 he moved to Rome and set up a studio with his good friend Corrado Cagli, whose sister Serena he later married. Mirko’s revelation to the art world occurred during the Roman Quadrennial of 1935 (in 1966 he would win the first prize) where he displayed a selection of sculptures. It would be, however, his first solo show at the Galleria della Cometa that gave full measure to a new and important presence in the world of Italian sculpture.
After WWII, Mirko created numerous monumental works in Rome, La Spezia, Mauthausen, Urbana (Illinois) and in Arlington and Cambridge (Massachussetts). In 1952 and 1954 he participated in the Venice Biennale, and in 1955, won the first International Prize for Sculpture at the San Paolo Biennale. From 1957, Mirko lived mainly in the United States, in Cambridge, where he became Head of the Design Workshop at Harvard University and later, was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Throughout his life and until his last days, he never ceased his research in sculpture, painting and teaching, as well as his active participation in exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Mirko died on 24 September 1969 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
GALLERY
Mirko Basaldella
October - December 2017
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1936
Galleria della Cometa, Rome
Galleria la Zecca, Turin (with Afro)
1938
The Cometa Gallery, New York
1939
Galleria Cairola, Genoa (with Afro)
Galleria di Roma, Rome
1945
Galleria dello Zodiaco, Rome (with Cagli)
1947
Knoedler Gallery, New York
Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome (paintings)
1948
Knoedler Gallery, New York
1949
Knoedler Gallery, New York
1950
Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York
1951
Galleria del Milione, Milan
1952
“Fantasie e invenzioni”, Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome
Galleria San Marco, Rome
1954
Galleria delle Carrozze, Rome (with Cagli)
Galleria Schneider, Rome
XXVII Biennale di Venice
1955
Galleria dell’Incontro, Rome
Galleria La Cassapanca, Rome
1956
Galleria La Cassapanca, Rome
Galleria Montenapoleone, Milan
Galleria La Navicella, Florence (with Carlo Levi)
1957
Arthur Jeffress Gallery, London
Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York
1958
Galleria Schneider, Rome
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass
1959
Galleria la Galatea, Turin
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
1960
XXX Biennale di Venezia (hall)
Trabia Gallery, New York (with Cagli)
1961
The Pace Gallery, Boston (with Matta)
World House Galleries, New York
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana
Obelisk Gallery, Washington D.C.
The Pace Gallery, Boston
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1937
Drawings exhibition, Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence
Mostra di 60 artisti italiani, Galleria Mediterranea, Palazzo De Seta, Palermo
Anthology of contemporary Italian drawing, The Cometa Art Gallery, New York
1938
XIV Venice Biennale
1939
La mostra della Zecca, Turin
III Rome Quadrennial
II Exhibition of “Corrente”, Galleria Grande, Milan
XXIX Rome Gallery exhibition, Roma
1940
VII Milan Triennale
1941
Exhibition of contemporary drawings, R. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
1942
I Rome Gallery exhibition, Galleria Roma, Rome
1944
Arte contro la Barbarie, Galleria San Marco, Rome
1946
Mirko, Gentilini, Tamburi, Chiurazzi, Rome
1948
Dieci disegnatori a Roma, Galleria Il Cortile, Rome
1949
Modern Italian painting exhibition, Galleria di Pittura, Milan
Contemporary Sculpture exhibition, Palazzo dei Leoni, Venice
Gran Premio Saint-Vincent
1951
Futurism and Later Italian Art, Palm Beach
1952
Contemporary Drawings from twelve countries, 1945-1952, Art Institute of Chicago
An Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art and Architecture, Union Theological Seminary, New York
XXVI Venice Biennale
1953
The Unknown Political Prisoner, Tate Gallery, London
Arte astratta italiana e francese, Art Club, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome
II Biennale de sculpture, Antwerpen
II Rassegna di scultura all’aperto, Varese
Twenty Imaginary Views of the America Scene by Twenty Young Artists, Los Angeles
Junge Italienische Kunst, Kunsthaus, Zurich
1954
Mostra dei Premiati alla XXVII Biennale di Venezia, Messina
X Milan Triennale
1955
Documenta, Kassel
The New Decade, 22 Europeans Painters and Sculptors, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Le arti plastiche e la civiltà meccanica, Galleria Nazionale d’arte Moderna, Rome
Exposicion de Arte Italiano Contemporaneo, Madrid, Barcellona, Santander, Saint-Etienne
International Beeldententtoonstelling in de opera lucht, Sonsbeek
93a Exhibition of Art Club, Venice
III Bienal de Sao Paolo
Contemporary Italian Art, The University Art Gallery, University of Minnesota, St. Louis
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