Italian modernist Mario Sironi died on this day in 1961 in MIlan. A native of Sardinia, Sironi grew up in Rome where he came to know Futurist Giacomo Balla. Sironi was also friends with Futurist Umberto Boccioni, with whom he shared an apartment in Paris in 1906. Though he did not fully ascribe to the movement, Sironi exhibited his work with the Futurists through 1922. Sironi worked as a caricaturist for the main Fascist newspaper through 1943, and from the 1930s preferred large-scale public art to easel paintings, which he saw as elitist and unable to reach the masses. In the postwar period, Sironi isolated himself because of his political affiliations and took up easel painting, producing many works until his death in 1961.
Emily Braun. “Sironi, Mario.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.