Dino Basaldella
Italy
Untitled/ Forma viva 1965
steel / 320 x 380 x 180 cm / Čečovje Neighbourhood, Ravne
The sculpture, which is monumental in both its format and its expression, stands emblematically at an exceptional veduta-like point at the edge of Čečovje, above the old street in the market centre of Ravne, which stretches out ten metres below. The raw and rugged contours of the simple, but suggestive statue are like an archetypal radar of sorts, feeling its way into prehistorical times, the times of primeval feelings of spirituality. The shape of the sculpture is torn, almost violently, out of the smooth material of several centimetres-thick steel plates. The vehemently bold conception of its implementation situates Balsadella’s statue among the best creations of Forma viva in Ravne and in Slovenia in general.
Dino Basaldella was born on 26 April, 1919, in Udine, Italy. He grew up in an artistic family. He studied in Venice and Florence. Already in the 1930s and later in the 1960s and 1970s, together with his brothers Afro and Mirko, he was one of the central figures of avantgarde art in the Friuli region. He exhibited his work in Rome as early as 1935, and in 1960 at the gallery La Tartaruga. His work was exhibited for the first time at the Venice Biennial already in 1936, and again in 1964. In 1961, his work was on display in various places in the USA: at the Princeton University Art Museum and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh; and he had a solo exhibition at the Catherine Viviano Gallery in New York. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, he created the Resistance memorial in Udine (1968–1970) and the monumental sculpture in front of the Kennedy Institute in the town of Pordenone (1973–1974). From 1942 to 1947, he taught sculpture at the Art Lyceum (Liceo Artistico) and the Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia di Belle Arti) in Venice; from 1948 to 1969 at the Art Institutes (Istituto d'Arte) in Gorizia and Udine; and from 1970 to 1975 at the Brera Academy (Accademia di Brera) in Milano. He died on 7 January, 1977, in Udine.
