Good condition.
Signed and dated on the lower right.
Signed, titled and dated on the upper stretcher.
There are faint dirt marks in places due to aging.

Afro Basaldella (1912-1976), better known through the mononym Afro, was a celebrated Italian painter known for balancing earthy colors with strong geometric shapes. Afro’s career began in the 1930s in Rome as part of the Scuola Romana, an expressionist art movement. During this time Afro collaborated with Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri. By the end of the 1930s, Afro’s earlier realist style was being impacted by American Abstraction and Cubism. Afro’s interest in American art led to an exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York in 1950. This marked a new successful era for Afro, who quickly became the most popular Italian painter for American collectors. Afro’s reputation continued to increase worldwide, and in 1956 Afro won the award for best Italian painter at the Venice Biennale. During this time, Afro was briefly in the Italian art movement 'The Group of Eight' (Gruppo Degli Otto). In 1960, Afro was the recipient of the respected Guggenheim Award in New York. A 2022 retrospective at the Ca’Pesaro in Venice celebrated Afro and explored the transatlantic impact of Afro’s work on 20th century abstract painting.

L,elmo is a later work and illustrates Afro’s considered use of color and form to create a space of possibility. It encapsulates the sentiments expressed by James Johnson Sweeney (1900-1986), the Guggenheim curator and author of Afro’s monograph, who wrote that Afro’s paintings possessed “this festive spirit, this light and celebration of life- of life through light”.