Alberto Magnelli (1 July 1888 – 20 April 1971) was an Italianmodernpainter who was a significant figure in the postwarConcrete art movement.

Magnelli was born inFlorence on July 1, 1888. In 1907 he started painting and, despite lacking formal art education,^[1] by 1909 he was established enough to be included in theVenice Biennale.^[2] His initial works were in aFauvist style.^[3] Magnelli joined the Florentineavant-garde befriending artists includingArdengo Soffici andGino Severini. He also visitedParis where he metGuillaume Apollinaire and theCubists includingPablo Picasso,Fernand Léger, andAlexander Archipenko. By 1915 he had adopted anabstract style incorporating cubist andfuturist elements.^[4]

Over the next few years Magnelli returned to figurative work and drifted away from the Italianavant-garde, which was becoming more supportive ofFascism, which he opposed. By 1931 he had returned to abstraction in the form ofconcrete art^[3] featuring geometric shapes and overlapping planes.^[1] He moved to Paris, where he joined theAbstraction-Création group^[3] and became friends withWassily Kandinsky,Jean Arp andSophie Taeuber.^[2] Following the invasion of France by theNazis, Magnelli and his future wife, Susi Gerson, went to live inGrasse with several other artists including the Arps. Some of the group, including Gerson, wereJewish so they were forced to hide. Despite this, the group was able to produce a number of collaborative works.^[5]

Following theSecond World War, Magnelli returned to Paris which was to be his home for the rest of his life. He became a major figure in the post war concrete art movement and influenced artists such asVictor Vasarely,Nicolas de Staël as well as the concrete artists in South America such asHélio Oiticica. He again exhibited at the Venice Biennale, this time with a whole room. Major galleries organised retrospectives of his work.^[2]

Magnelli died on 20 April 1971 at his home inMeudon, Paris.

• Venice Biennale (1909)
• Galleria Materassi, Florence (1921) (his first solo exhibition)
• Pesaro Gallery, Milan (1929)
• Galerie Pierre, Paris (1934) (his first major exhibition in Paris)
• Nierendorf Gallery, New York (1937) (his first solo exhibition in the USA)
• René Drouin Gallery (1947)
• Venice Biennale (1950)
• São Paulo Biennial (1951) (awarded second prize)
• Palace of Fine Arts, Brussels (1954) (his first full retrospective exhibition)
• Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1955)
• Documenta II, Kassel (1955)
• Kunsthaus, Zürich (1963) (major retrospective celebrating his 75th birthday)
• Museum of Modern Art, Paris (1968)

^[2][3]