Alberto Magnelli

Alberto Magnelli (1888–1971) was an Italian painter and one of the pioneers of geometric abstraction.

Alberto Magnelli was born in Florence in 1881 and developed as a largely self taught artist deeply influenced by Renaissance masters such as Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. Although invited by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti to join the Futurist movement in 1911, Magnelli pursued an increasingly independent path toward abstraction while retaining certain Futurist and Cubist elements. During his early travels to Paris, he encountered the work of Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Carlo Carrà, and Alexander Archipenko, experiences that shaped his transition from figuration to abstraction.

After travelling through Germany, Switzerland, France, and Austria, Magnelli settled permanently in Paris in 1931. He later became closely associated with the abstract avant garde and with artists including Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Robert Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian through the activities of the Abstraction Création group. During the Second World War he lived in Grasse, where he continued producing geometric collages and abstract compositions. Returning to Paris in 1944, he became an important figure within postwar geometric abstraction and the circle around Denise René. In 1959 he moved to Meudon, where he remained until his death in 1971.

Kelly visited his studio in Meudon together with Jürg Spiller.