Alberto Magnelli

Selected Works

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Alberto Magnelli
Pierre n°6G, 1933
Tempera sur papier goudronné
116 x 83 cm
Signée et datée 33 en haut à droite
Signée et datée au dos

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Alberto Magnelli
Pierre n°2G, 1933
Tempera sur papier goudronné
130 x 81 cm
Signée et datée 33 en bas à gauche

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Sans titre, 1931
Encre sur papier
26,8 x 20 cm
Signée et datée 31 en bas à droite

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Alberto Magnelli
Affinités en réunion, 1938
Huile sur toile
97 x 130 cm
Signée et datée en bas à droite
Signée, annotée « Je l'imagine » et datée au dos

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Alberto Magnelli
Nature Morte Alla Linea Bianca, 1914
Huile sur toile
70 x 55 cm
Signée, datée et inclinée au dos

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Alberto Magnelli_Le monde suspendu_1956_huile sur toile_100x81cm_Courtesy Galerie Patrice Trigano.jpg

Alberto Magnelli
Le monde suspendu, 1956
Huile sur toile
100 x 81 cm
Signée et datée 56 en haut à gauche
Signée, inclinée et datée au dos

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Some of the works depicted are no longer available.

Biography

Alberto Magnelli is an Italian artist whose characteristic plastic elements of his work are summed up in the construction of space by geometric volumes, the treatment of surfaces and the use of intense colors. It is not a faithful transposition of reality, but an "invented painting". He uses unconventional techniques allowing him to become the leader of abstract painting in the 1940s.

Alberto Magnelli (1888 - 1971), is a painter of Italian origin, but who made his entire career in France. Magnelli began painting in 1907 as an autodidact, he trained by visiting the churches of Tuscany and learning from the masters of the Quattrocento, in particular Piero della Francesca who taught him the lessons of the construction of space. He then approached the Italian futurists Marinetti, Boccioni and Carrà. In 1914, he arrived in France and became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, and the painters Archipenko, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse and Picasso. His painting took a turn, moving from figurative art to the hardest abstraction in the form of flat tints, highlighted by stains and a white or black outline. The characteristic plastic elements of his work are summed up in the construction of space by geometric volumes, the treatment of surfaces and the use of intense colours. It is not a faithful transposition of reality, but an "invented painting". However, he returned to a more classical figurative art, called "imaginary realism" in 1918, by creating the series of lyrical explosions in which he temporarily abandoned the flat areas of pure colours for an explosion of shapes and colours. Between 1930 and 1934, his fascination with Carrara marble blocks made him stop painting to devote himself to the Series of Exploded Stones which he exhibited in 1931. For the creation of this series, he represented massive anthropomorphic silhouettes, alone or in pairs, using unconventional materials, such as tar paper.

It was during this period that Magnelli became deeply interested in new techniques, such as lithography and collage, which allowed him to explore questions of relationships between materials and forms. Finally, he returned to abstract art for good and, after Kandinsky's death in 1944, became the leader of abstract painting. During the Second World War, Alberto Magnelli took refuge in La Ferrage near Grasse. He then frequented artists who had settled on the Côte d'Azur, including Picasso in Vallauris. In 1964, Suzanne and Georges Ramié dedicated an exhibition to him at the Madoura gallery and he collaborated with Hidalgo Arnéra on the technique of linocutting. Alberto Magnelli wanted these works, essential milestones in his work, to be kept together in a place near Grasse after his death in 1971. Georges Tabaraud played a major role in the rapprochement between the municipality of Vallauris and Susi Magnelli, the artist's wife, who decided to donate this collection to the town and its future museum.

Public Collections

Galleria d’arte moderna, Florence ; Musée national d’art moderne, Paris ; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris ; Musée Magnelli, Vallauris ; Museum Folkwang, Essen ; Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles ; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro : Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec ; Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelone ; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo ; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York ; Philadelphia Museum of Art ; Musée Picasso, Antibes ; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon ; Kunstmuseum, Bâle ; Kunsthaus, Zurich.

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Le miroir à sons

Based on the novel from Patrice Trigano