Mario Sironi was born in Sassari on May 12, 1885, to a father from Como and a mother from Florence. He was raised in Rome, where the family moved when he was one year’s old. A reader of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Leopardi, Sironiloved Wagner and played the piano with his sister Cristina, a future concert pianist.
Sironi initially enrolled in the faculty of engineering in 1902, but he decided the following year to dedicate entirely to painting and attended the Scuola Libera del Nudo on Via Ripetta and Giacomo Balla’s studio.
In 1905, he created illustrations for three covers of Avanti della Domenica and made his debut in a group exhibition of the Società Amatori e Cultori, showcasing works such as Senza luce and Paesaggio. During this time, he embarked on travels: in 1906 to Paris, where he met Umberto Boccioni, and in 1908 to Erfurt as a guest of Felix Tannenbaum.
Sironi, an admirer of classical art with a penchant for Divisionism, early on showed interest in creating images with significant volumes. His portraits from 1910 exude the solemnity reminiscent of ancient statues. By 1913, influenced by Boccioni’s works, his fascination with Futurism developed, yet he retained volumetric forms amidst the Movement’s distinctive dynamic deformations (as seen in Volumi dinamici, 1914).
In 1914, he took part in the Libera Esposizione futurista by Sprovieri in Rome and signed a declaration advocating free speech. The following year, after a brief stay in Milan, he contributed illustrations to the magazine Gli Avvenimenti, aligned with Futurism, and assumed a leadership role within the group. With the outbreak of World War I, like many fellow Futurists, he enlisted in the Bicycle Volunteer Battalion and, in the subsequent year, endorsed the manifesto L’orgoglio italiano alongside other Movement members. After the war, in 1919, he participated in the Great National Futurist Exhibition in Milan. It was during this period that metaphysical elements began to manifest more frequently in Sironi’s work, notably in pieces showcased at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia in Rome.
In the early 1920s, Sironi moved to Milan, where he depicted urban landscapes and actively participated in Fascio meetings. His alignment with Fascist ideology would lead to the creation of numerous public works during the 1930s, imbued with ideological themes and driven by the aspiration to democratize art, removing it from exclusive drawing rooms and making it accessible to the broader community. Returning to the 1920s, in 1920, he co-signed the Manifesto futurista. Contro tutti i ritorni in pittura with Achille Funi, Leonardo Dudreville, and Luigi Russolo. He exhibited his cityscapes—both tragic and grandiose—for the first time at the Art Gallery in the spring of that year. Alongside his painting endeavors, Sironi’s significant contributions as an illustrator should not be overlooked. Between 1920 and 1921, he published approximately one panel per week in Le Industrie Italiane Illustrate, and in 1921, he initiated a twenty-year collaboration with the Mussolini newspaper Popolo d’Italia.
In late 1922, inspired by Margherita Sarfatti, Sironi co-founded the Novecento Italiano alongside colleagues such as Bucci, Dudreville, Funi, Malerba, Marussig, and Oppi. The group debuted with its inaugural exhibition at the Pesaro Gallery in the following spring of 1923. In 1924, Sironi made his debut at the Venice Biennale, presenting significant works such as L’architetto and L’allieva, which are still considered pivotal in his artistic journey. During the same year, he ventured into theater design, creating sets and costumes for Aristophanes’ Knights, marking the beginning of his exploration into theatrical aesthetics that would extend into the subsequent decades.
Between the 1920s and 1930s, Sironi played a prominent role in numerous exhibitions organized by the group, establishing himself as one of its most influential figures. In 1926, he exhibited at the I Mostra del Novecento Italiano in Milan, followed by a showcase at the Galerie Carminati in Paris. The following year, his works were displayed in Geneva, Zurich, Amsterdam, and The Hague. In 1929, he returned to Milan for the II Mostra del Novecento Italiano and participated in exhibitions in Nice, Geneva, Berlin, and Paris. His presence extended globally, with exhibitions in Basel, Bern, and Buenos Aires in 1930, and in Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki in 1931. During this period, Sironi’s passion for mural painting grew more fervent. In 1927, he commenced his career as an art critic for Popolo d’Italia and joined the Artistic Committee of the Monza Biennale of Decorative Arts, later transitioning to the Milan Triennale in 1933. In 1928, he played a role in establishing the Pavilion of the People of Italy for the Milan Trade Fair and contributed to the creation of the Italian Pavilion for the International Press Exhibition in Cologne.
The following year he was involved in the setting up of the Printing Pavilion at the Barcelona International Exhibition; in 1930 in the setting up of the Graphic Arts Gallery at the IV Monza Triennale; and finally, in 1931 he participated with a solo room at the I Quadriennale in Rome. That year he was commissioned to execute the stained-glass window La Carta del Lavoro, for the Ministry of Corporations in Rome, ending in 1932. Simultaneously, he also worked on two large canvases for the Palazzo delle Poste in Bergamo: Il Lavoro nei campi o L’Agricoltura and Il Lavoro in città o L’Architettura ending in 1934.
Growing increasingly committed to mural painting, Sironi articulated his aspirations in two significant texts: Pittura murale (1932) and Manifesto della Pittura Murale co-signed by Campigli, Carrà, and Funi in 1933. Fueled by this growing interest, he sculpted two reliefs for the Casa dei Sindacati Fascisti in Milan in 1932. In 1933, at the Fifth Triennale, Sironi took charge of coordinating mural painting interventions, rallying the finest Italian artists to undertake monumental decorations. Amidst this, he himself engaged in creating Il Lavoro alongside numerous plastic works.
During the latter half of the decade, he embarked on several notable projects, including the fresco L’Italia tra le Arti e le Scienze in the Great Hall of Sapienza University of Rome (1935). Other endeavors included the mosaic L’Italia Corporativa (1936-1937, now housed in Palazzo dei Giornali, Milan), frescoes such as L’Italia, Venezia and gli Studi for Ca’ Foscari in Venice (1936-1937), as well as Rex imperator and Dux for the Mother House of the Mutilated in Rome (1936-1938). Additionally, he created the mosaic La Giustizia fiancheggiata dalla Legge for the Palace of Justice in Milan (1936-1939), two large bas-reliefs for the International Exhibition in Paris (1937), and concluded with the stained-glass window L’Annunciazione for the church of Niguarda Hospital in Milan (1938-1939).
Alongside the decorative feats, he also created complex architectural installations, including in 1932 various halls at the Fascist Revolution Exhibition; in 1933 many interventions for the Milan Triennale; in 1934 of the Great War Hall at the Italian Aeronautics Exhibition; in 1935 of the Hall of Honor at the National Sports Exhibition; in 1936 the Fiat Pavilion at the Milan Trade Fair; in 1937 the Overseas Italy Hall at the Paris International Expo; and in 1939 part of the National Dopolavoro Exhibition in Rome.
The tumultuous period of World War II, coupled with the ultimate downfall of the fascist ideology, along with a longstanding predisposition towards melancholy and introspection, prompted the artist to explore themes wherein the fragmented nature of forms gradually supplanted the primary constructive energy that had characterized his earlier works. A notable example of this shift can be seen in one of his final pictorial cycles, dedicated to the theme of the Apocalypse. Despite his withdrawal from participating in the Venetian Biennials, Sironi continued to exhibit his works at significant venues such as the Milan Triennale (1951) and the Rome Quadrennial (1955), as well as internationally, including exhibitions in the United States in 1953. He passed away in Milan in 1961.