The “Composition”, created around 1964 by Afro Basaldella, represents a significant example of the artist’s mature phase, when his abstract language reached a fully personal synthesis. The work is characterized by an essential sign structure, where diluted grey colour fields interact with nervous and gestural black lines, creating a dynamic balance between control and spontaneity.
From a formal point of view, the composition is constructed through fluid stains and calligraphic signs, which overlap without ever losing legibility. In this sense, the work reflects Afro’s interest in European and American Informal painting, filtered, however, through a lyrical and measured sensibility. At the same time, the absence of figurative references reinforces the emotional and rhythmic dimension of the work.
Afro Basaldella, among the main exponents of Italian abstraction of the second post-war period, was a protagonist of important international exhibitions, from the Venice Biennale to Documenta. Therefore, this composition fits coherently within the period in which the artist deepened the relationship between sign, space and matter, definitively abandoning every narrative residue.
Description: Tempera on cardboard, H cm 30×40. Bearing on the reverse the inscription ‘It is a watercoloured drawing by Afro from around 1964, given to me by him – A. Merlo’.
Provenance: Aldo Merlo Collection – Udine.
Hammer Price: € 6.820,00
Auction 41 – 4 November 2020 – Modern and Contemporary Art
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