Ubaldo Magnavacca Biography
Ubaldo Magnavacca was born in Modena in 1885. He demonstrated an early predisposition for drawing from life with charcoal and sanguine and was directed by his teacher S. Postiglione to the systematic study of art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Modena, where he chose to concentrate on engraving. He soon received some academic recognition, winning the Magnanini Prize in 1906 and the Poletti Prize in 1912 with his Female Nude. In 1914 he was admitted as an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the following year he received further professional confirmation, winning the Curlandese competition in Bologna with the engraving of the apse of the Modena Cathedral.
Before the First World War, Magnavacca dedicated himself mainly to graphic art but continued to practice charcoal and pastel techniques. He also tried his hand at oil painting, using various methods to paint the same subjects. His works from this period, such as the aforementioned Female Nude, The Morning Milk of 1909, and The Cult of the Dead of 1912 (all in private collections), demonstrate his adherence to the decadent Symbolist movement, particularly in the luminous and soft tones that recall GA Sartorio and A. De Carolis. The chiaroscuro contrasts are rendered with rapid gestures, revealing some similarities with the brushstrokes of G. Previati and G. Mentessi. In the 1920s Magnavacca turned his attention to painting and sculpture and took part in various public competitions in Modena, winning some of them. In 1924 he created the Monument to the Postal Telegraphs (currently under the porticoes of the Post Office building) and in 1927 he created the plaque for Giulio Vassale at the University. In his paintings of this period, moral sentiment stands out as the profound sense of human destiny and life is reflected in the work and efforts of men and animals. As in the graphics, Magnavacca paid particular attention to the relationship between the spectator and the scenic frame, slightly lowering the point of view to enhance the subject and the action.
From 1934 to 1944 Magnavacca taught figure drawing at the Free Nude Evening School of the A. Venturi Art Institute. Among his students N. Annovi, P. Ascari, V. Magalli, W. Morselli, I. Malavasi. He almost completely abandons the use of the brush for the spatula technique, which is more immediate and rough, capable of highlighting the material but also of revealing or scratching the support. On the latter, carefully prepared with a dark bitumen-based base, he skilfully alternated well-blended colors with different degrees of drying. While remaining distant from the positions of the Informal movement that spread in the 1950s, Magnavacca did not remain insensitive to the investigations conducted in Italian Abstractionism on color: in his works the real data, never completely abandoned, became a reason for formal color experimentation.
