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Atanasio Soldati

Header: Atanasio Soldati
Also known as: Atanasio Soldati; primary name: Soldati, Atanasio
Details: individual; printmaker; Italian; Male
Life dates: 1896-1953
Biography: Text from Martin Hopkinson, 'Italian Prints 1875-1975', BMP, 2007 Born in Parma, Soldati studied architecture at the Accademia di Belle Arte in his native city until 1920. He practised as an architect, while teaching drawing at the Scuola Professionale at Langhirano from 1923 to 1925, and began to paint. Soldati moved to Milan in 1925. His simplified compositions of urban subjects have something in common with 'Pittura Metafisica'. Carlo Carrà was the most significant influence on his art of this period. Soldati had his first one - man show in 1931 at the Galleria Il Milione in Milan, where he had the opportunity to see the abstract work of Mauro Reggiani and Gino Ghiringhelli. In the early 1930s, he studied both Cubism and Purism. A visit to Paris in 1933, brought Soldati into direct contact with the work of Kandinsky, Klee, and Picasso. The critic and theoretician of abstract art, Carlo Belli, wrote the introduction to the catalogue of his second exhibition at the Galleria del Milione in 1933. By the time of his third show, Soldati's paintings had become fully abstract. His work was in the linear abstraction vein of Mondrian and Vortemberge - Gildewart. In 1936, Soldati made the logical decision to join the Paris based international group Abstraction - Création. He paid a second visit to Paris in 1938. During the war, his Milan studio was completely destroyed, and he moved to Losana near Pavia. Soldati was a member of the Italian Resistance movement. After the war, back in Milan he was one of the founders of M.A.C. (Movimento Arte Concreta) in 1948, and he began to teach at the Accademia di Brera. Soldati was included in Arte 'Astratta in Italia', the major exhibition organised by The Art Club in the Galleria di Roma in 1948. Aggressive jagged forms in his art suggest an interest in Futurism. The overlapping planes can be compared with some of the works of Magnelli and Prampolini. Soldati was allotted a room to himself at the 1952 Venice Biennale. Despite recurrent illness, he produced high quality work to the end of his career.

2 related objects

print; portfolio

Title: Arte Concreta 24 litografie originali |
Museum number: 1989,0722.3.22 |
Producer name: BIOG46724 Print made by:Atanasio Soldati |
Production date: 1949 |
Production place: Published in:Milan (city)

print; portfolio

Title: Arte Concreta 24 litografie originali |
Museum number: 1989,0722.3.21 |
Producer name: BIOG46724 Print made by:Atanasio Soldati |
Production date: 1949 |
Production place: Published in:Milan (city)

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