Birolli was born at Verona to a family of industrial workers.
In 1923 he moved to Milan where he formed an avant-gardist group with artists such as Renato Guttuso, Giacomo Manzù and Aligi Sassu.
He subsequently cast painting aside to devote himself to supporting Communist causes and, later, the partisan resistance.
Here his painting style changed under the influence of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, moving first to a post-Cubist position and then to a somehow abstract form of lyrism.
His son Zeno Birolli (1939–2014) was an art critic and historian.