Mario Sironi - part 2

Mario Sironi (1885-1961) was an Italian Modernist artist who was active as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer. His typically somber paintings are characterised by massive, immobile forms. In 1922 he was one of the founding members of the Sette di Novecento in Milan and became the leading exponent of the Novecento italiano. Sironi was the chief political caricaturist and illustrator for Mussolini’s official press, Il Popolo d’Italia (1927–33) and La Rivista Illustrata del Popolo d’Italia (1934–39). He authored the influential Manifesto of Mural Painting in 1933. After World War II he returned to easel painting in a style consistent with the abstract Informel movement. In 1956 he was elected member of the Accademia di San Luca. Sironi died in Milan on 13 August 1961. 

For a more comprehensive biography, and for earlier works by Mario Sironi, see part 1 also.

This is part 2 of a 5-part series on the works of Mario Sironi: 

c1924 Urban Landscape
oil on paper mounted on board  27.7 x 40 cm
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

c1924 Urban Landscape with Railway Worker
oil on paper laid on board 54.4 x 51.7 cm

1925 Figure in Interior
pencil on paper 13.7 x 11 cm

1925 Study for an illustration of Massimo Bontempelli's short story "Oggi"
pencil on paper 13.1 x 11.8 cm

1925-26 Solitudine
oil on canvas 98 x 82 cm
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome

c1925-30 Bust of a young boy
oil on canvas laid doen on cardboard 59 x 48 cm
Boschi di Stefano Home-Museum, Milan

c1925 Female figure and building
pencil and tempera on paper 25.1 x 22.4 cm

c1925 Figure
tempera and mixed media on paper 31.3 x 22.4 cm

c1925 Fisherman 
pencil on paper 30.5 x 24.5 cm

c1925 Sitting figure
 ink and diluted ink on paper laid on canvas 23 x 15 cm

1926 Head of a man and architecture
pencil and graphite on paper 16.3 x 12.6 cm

1926 Il Gigante dell' Aria (The Air Giant)

1926 Il Gigante dell' Aria (The Air Giant)

c1926-27 Houses and Bell Tower
tempera and mixed media on paper 19.3 x 21.8 cm

c1926 Composition with female figure
 pencil and tempera on paper laid down on canvas 24.5 x 18.6 cm

c1926 Figure
tempera on paper laid on cardboard 17.3 x 12.6 cm

c1926 Study for an illustration
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 50.4 x 35 cm

c1926 Study for an unfinished poster for the ‘Mostra del Novecento Italiano’ (Italian Twentieth Century Exhibition)
ink and diluted ink on paper 31.6 x 26 cm

c1926 Trees, figure and house
tempera on paper 18.8 x 21.6 cm

1927 Female Nude
mixed media on paper 44 x 33 cm

1927 Illustration of the novella "The puppets and Marilù" by Rodolfo Cazzaniga
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 24.6 x 34.7 cm

1927 The Family
oil on canvas 97 x 73 cm
Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali
(Capitoline Superintendence of Cultural Heritage)

c1927 Figure
pencil on paper 27.7 x 20.6 cm

c1927 Head of a horse
pencil and gouache on cardboard 19.3 x 19.2 cm

c1927 Landscape with figure, tree, rocks and air balloon
pencil on paper 18.3 x 14.4 cm

c1927 Nude study
 pencil on paper laid down on canvas 26 x 18 cm

c1927 Urban landscape
oil on canvas 52 x 54.5 cm
Private Collection

1928 Landscape with houses
mixed media on paper laid on canvas 34.5 x 30.4 cm

1928 Study
tempera on paper 12 x 13 cm

1928 Paesaggio urbano (Urban landscape)
oil on masonite 40 x 58 cm
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin

c1928-29 Study of a female nude
pencil on paper 23.7 x 19 cm

c1928 Mountains
oil on canvas 81.9 x 107.9 cm
Tate Gallery, London

c1928 Nude woman seen from the back
ink on paper 28.9 x 21 cm

1929 Sketch for the illustration 'Subscribe!' published in
'Il Popolo d'Italia'
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 44.4 x 29.4 cm

1929-30 Composition
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 24 x 22.5 cm

1930 Composition with landscape, tree and figures
pencil on paper 16.7 x 24.5 cm

1930 Study for monumental composition
pencil on paper 26.6 x 31.4 cm

c1930 Nude
pencil on paper

c1930 Portrait
oil on board 50 x 40 cm

late 1930s Mountain
tempera and pencil on paper

1931 Untitled (Man opening a Door)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

c1931 Composition with figure
tempera on paper on cardboard 55.2 x 54.9 cm

1932 Exposicion de la  Revolucion Fascista
colour lithograph poster

1932 Original plate of the illustration of the novel "Sprechen sie deutsch" by Arrigo de Angelis
mixed media on cardboard 23.5 x 27.3 cm

c1932 Knight
India ink on paper 19 x 32.6 cm

1934 Edizione del Pomeriggio L'Ambrosiano
colour lithograph poster

Mario Sironi - part 1

Mario Sironi was born in 1885 in Sassari, Sardinia. In 1902 he enrolled in the engineering school at the University of Rome, but soon abandoned his studies. At the Scuola Libera del Nudo, which he began attending in 1903, Sironi met Balla, Boccioni, and Severini. He exhibited at the “Esposizione della Società degli Amatori e Cultori” in 1905, and contributed illustrations to the Socialist journal L’Avanti della Domenica. He travelled to Paris in 1906, Munich in 1908, and Frankfurt in 1910. Suffering from depression, he spent long periods of his youth in seclusion and destroyed most of his early, Divisionist work. He adhere to Futurism late in 1913, participating in the “Esposizione Libera Futurista” at the Galleria Sprovieri in 1914.

By 1915 Sironi had moved to Milan, where he took the place of Ardengo Soffici in the core Futurist group. That same year he signed the Futurist’ interventionist manifesto L’orgoglio italiano (Italian Pride). He served at the front with Marinetti, Boccioni, Russolo, and Antonio Sant’Elia. In 1919 Sironi participated in the “Grande Mostra Futurista” in Milan, organised by Marinetti as a show of the movement’s strength in the immediate post-war period. That same year he held his first one-man show at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia in Rome. In 1920 he signed Contro tutti i ritorni in pittura (Against All Revivals in Painting) with Russolo and other former Futurists. From 1919-21 he painted his famous series of paesaggi urbani, urban landscapes, which transformed De Chirico’s haunting Italian piazze d’Italia, city-squares, into contemporary scenes of the Milanese industrial periphery.

In 1922 he was one of the founding members of the Sette di Novecento in Milan and became the leading exponent of the Novecento italiano. Sironi was the chief political caricaturist and illustrator for Mussolini’s official press, Il Popolo d’Italia (1927–33) and La Rivista Illustrata del Popolo d’Italia (1934–39). He was also the leading theorist and practitioner of mural painting and received prominent commissions from the regime. He authored the influential Manifesto of Mural Painting in 1933. After World War II he returned to easel painting in a style consistent with the abstract Informel movement. In 1956 he was elected member of the Accademia di San Luca. Sironi died in Milan on 13 August 1961.

This is part 1 of a 5-part series on the works of Mario Sironi:

c1906 Woman's Face
pencil on paper (size not given)

c1913 Futurist Composition
 ink on paper 22.4 x 14.7 cm

c1913 Futurist Figure
pencil on paper 22 x 13.5 cm

1914 Futurist City Estorick
Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

1914 Nude (Standing Figure)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

c1914 Plasticity of a Head
ink and tempera on paper 19 x 13.4 cm

1915 Composition
mixed media on paper (size not given)

1915 Untitled (Woman, Horse and Cat)
size not given
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

1915 The Metaphysical Robot Arant
(sie not given)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

1915-15 Soldier
crayon on paper 26.9 x 18.5 cm
MoMA, New York

c1915 Composition
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 20.9 x 19.7 cm

c1915 Futurist Composition
ink on paper 22.4 x 14.7 cm

1916 Figure of a man
pencil and charcoal on paper laid down on canvas 32 x 22 cm

1916 The Cyclist
oil on canvas (size not given)
Gaetani collection, Rome

1916 The Cyclist
oil on canvas 96 x 71 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

1916 Sketch for the cover of Gli Avvenimenti (The Events) magazine
tempera and mixed media on paper laid on canvas 47.4 x 36 cm

1916 Townscape with Horse
pencil on paper 31 x 21 cm

1916 Urban landscape, aeroplane and seated woman
(size not given)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

c1916 Sketch for Illustration
tempera and mixed media on paper on canvas
(size not given)

1917 Horse and Carriage in a Street
(size not given)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

1918 Figure on a balcony
tempera on paper laid on canvas 26.8 x 19.8 cm

c1918-19 Composition
pencil on paper 23.9 x 19.6 cm

c1918 Mannequin
 ink on graph paper 21 x 15 cm
MoMA, New York

1919 Venus of Harbours
tempera on canvas 98 x 73.5 cm

c1919 Composition with Knight and mannequins
mixed media on cardboard 53.8 x 36.8 cm

c1919 Female figure, houses and studies of heads
pencil on paper 35.5 x 26.5 cm

c1919 Figure
graphite on paper 34.4 x 22.8 cm

1920 Suburbs with Truck
oil on canvas 67 x 55.5 cm
Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto

1920 The Tramway
oil on cardboard 72 x 99 cm

1920 Towards the goal
(illustration published in 'Le industrie italiane illustrate' July edition

c1920 Boat and Fisherman
ink on paper 13 x 21.5 cm

c1920 Bridge
pencil on paper 14 x 19 cm

c1920 Composition with bottle and inkwell
tempera and pencil on cardboard laid on canvas

c1920 Harbour, urban landscape and figure
tempera and collage on paper laid down on canvas 33 x 28 cm

c1920 Urban landscape with tram
ink on paper 21.7 x 27.8 cm

1920s Composition
pencil and tempera on paper laid on canvas 14 x 18 cm

1921-22 Periphery
oil on paper 54 x 54 cm
Museo Nacionale de Bellas Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina

c1921 Urban landscape
ink on paper 13.6 x 10.4 cm

1922-23 Portrait (illustration for publication)
pencil and China ink on paper 29 x 22.5 cm

1922-26 Athlete
tempera and collage on canvassed paper 68 x 60 cm

1923 Semi-nude with fruit bowl
oil on canvas 100 x 75.5 cm
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin

1924 Maximum Patriots
ink, tempera, tempera, charcoal, pencil and collage on cardboard 20.1 x 23.8 cm

1924 probably a design for a stage set
tempera and mixed media on paper 32.8 x 29.5 cm

1924 Sketch for the cover of the Encyclopedic Almanac of the People of Italy
pencil on card

1924 Urban Landscape
oil on canvas (size not given)
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia

c1924 Horse with geometric rider
(size not given)
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London

c1924 Ice Hockey
tempera and pencil on paper 25.5 x 22.4 cm

c1924 Landscape with mountains, houses, tower and dome
tempera and mixed media on paper 24.2 x 32.7 cm