Afro 1950-1970. From Italy to America and back

On the occasion of the 2022 Venice Biennale, Ca’ Pesaro presents a retrospective exhibition on one of the most important voices of post-World War II Italian art, Afro Basaldella.

The exhibition features 45 works and some selected drawings, significant archival materials and original videos, with the aim to present the crucial years of Afro’s production, when the artist was in close contact with the American world, an exposure which contributed to the full development of his own clear and distinct visual language.

Afro commenced his artistic career in Venice, then moved to Rome and finally made a mark in the United States following his first visit there in 1950, and soon after becoming the best known and most appreciated Italian artist amongst American collectors. The exhibition shows how Afro melted the intimate tonal colour of Venetian painting and influences from synthetic cubism and abstract art.

In the exhibition, Afro’s production from 1950 until 1970 is accompanied by emblematical links to the Italian and American art scenes, suggested through works, letters and photographs. Within these, it is highly noteworthy the spiritual connection, distant in time, with Arshile Gorky, present in the show with the stunning “Untitled“, 1944 (on loan from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice), as well as Afro’s friendship with Willem De Kooning, exhibited at Ca’ Pesaro with two precious works from the ’60s.