Il Giardino della Speranza (The Garden of Hope)

Afro

1954

Afro Basaldella, who was known by his first name only, was one of the early members of a group of postwar Italian artists called the Gruppo degli Otto (Group of Eight) who saw in abstraction a form of artistic autonomy and liberation from both the politicized restrictions of communist socialist realism in the postwar period and the figurative realism that had been the official art of fascist Italy under dictator Benito Mussolini. Afro’s own declarations about art—such as his 1955 statement, “The picture should be an enclosed world; within its limits the drama unfolds”—suggest he associated the act of making art with an existential experience, a struggle to express meaning that is evident in the material qualities of the artwork. Indeed, with its references to inner states, dreamlike recollections, and mysterious reminiscences, his work often upholds this association. Through its active cluster of shapes that imply lively, forward motion across a blue field, Il Giardino della Speranza evokes, as its title suggests, themes of hope, progress, and fecundity. For Afro, abstraction was often conceived of as an expression of a subconscious state or metaphysical experience that could unite both the suffering and beauty of humanity. [Exhibition label, 2015]

Artist Afro (Italian, 1912–1976)
Title Il Giardino della Speranza (The Garden of Hope)
Date 1954
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions unframed | 57 x 68 7/8 in.
Credit line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Weil, 1962
Object number WU 3918

Technique oil painting
Work type painting

From Picasso to Fontana: Collecting Modern and Postwar Art in the Eisendrath Years, 1960–1968
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/23/2015 - 04/19/2015

Afro: Il periodo americano/Afro: The American Period
Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Trento, Italy), 03/17/2012 - 07/08/2012

Modernism at Midstream: From Europe to America and Back Again
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/04/1983 - 11/06/1983

Salute to St. Louis
Stix, Baer & Fuller Department Store, 10/04/1965 - 10/16/1965

University Exhibition
Stix, Baer & Fuller Department Store, 09/01/1965 - 09/01/1965

Contemporary European Paintings and Sculpture from a St. Louis Private Collection
Saint Louis Art Museum, 08/01/1955 - 08/29/1955

Afro: Exhibition of Paintings
Catherine Viviano Gallery, 04/25/1955 - 05/21/1955

Contemporary Italian Art: Painting, Drawing, Sculpture
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, 12/01/1955 - 12/23/1955
Saint Louis Art Museum, 10/13/1955 - 11/14/1955

May 27, 1955 – May 22, 1961
Richard K. Weil (1902–1996) and Florence S. Weil (1914–1985), also known as Mrs. Richard K. Weil, St. Louis, purchase from the above

May 22, 1961–present
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Weil

Inscription Recto, lower right, in black paint:

Inscription Verso, upper center of stretcher, in pencil:

Label Verso, upper left of stretcher, white rectangular label, printed text with inscriptions in black ink: E 7664.23 / [printed:] CATHERINE VIVIANO GALLERY / 42 east 57 street new york 22, n.y. / [printed:] Artist [inscribed:] Afro / [printed:] Title [inscribed:] "Il Giardino della Speranza" / [printed:] No. [empty space] Size [inscribed:] 64 x 59 in. / [printed:] Date [inscribed:] 1954

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