Original colour lithograph, by Alberto Magnelli entitled "Abstract" , published in 1967 by XXe Siecle magazine, issue number 29.
Printed in Paris by Mourlot.
Alberto Magnelli was born on July 1, 1881, in Florence, Italy. Self-taught, he was an admirer of Renaissance artists Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello, and Piero della Francesca. He was particularly interested in fresco painting, whose influence is apparent in his experimental compositions in collage, painting, and drawing. In 1911 the founder of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, invited him to join his artistic and social movement, but Magnelli declined. Although he exhibited with the group, he instead followed the path of abstraction, even while retaining some Futurist elements.
His early work was primarily figurative, but he began ta move towards a more abstract style soon into his career. He made a series of what he called “invented works,” characterized by bright areas of colours and elliptical patterns. Later he experimented with geometric figuration, integrating Fauvist colour, Futurism, and Cubism.
Later works featured textural geometric collages, using materials including corrugated cardboard, emery cloth, music paper, stitched wire, and metal plates. He also executed a number of paintings on schoolchildren’s wood-framed slate boards. Many of these works were luminous geometric compositions constructed from flat areas of color and inscribed white lines, while others were inscriptions of purely geometric lines.
In 1959 he moved to France, where he died in1971.
