Magnelli, Alberto

Magnelli, Alberto (b Florence, 1 July 1888; d Meudon, nr. Paris, 20 Apr. 1971).
Italian painter, active mainly in Paris, where he settled in 1931. In his early work he moved from a naturalistic style to one influenced by Futurism and then Cubism. After the First World War his style became more representational under the influence of Metaphysical Painting. In the late 1930s he turned to pure abstraction, his work characteristically making use of a dynamic interplay of hard-edged shapes. An exhibition at the Galerie René Drouin, Paris, in 1947 established his reputation and from the 1950s he was much honoured and recognized as one of Italy's leading abstract artists.