Carlo Carrà (; February 11, 1881 – April 13, 1966) was an
Italian painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
and a leading figure of the
Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number of books concerning art. He taught for many years in the city of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4  ...
.
Biography
Carrà was born in
Quargnento, near
Alessandria (
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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). At the age of 12 he left home in order to work as a mural decorator.
In 1899–1900, Carrà was in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
decorating pavilions at the
Exposition Universelle, where he became acquainted with contemporary French art. He then spent a few months in London in contact with exiled Italian
anarchists
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
, and returned to Milan in 1901. In 1906, he enrolled at
Brera Academy
The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca d ...
(''Accademia di Brera'') in the city, and studied under
Cesare Tallone. In 1910 he signed, along with
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni (, ; 19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach ...
,
Luigi Russolo and
Giacomo Balla
Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works, ...
the ''Manifesto of Futurist Painters'', and began a phase of painting that became his most popular and influential.
Carrà's Futurist phase ended around the time
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
began. His work, while still using some Futurist concepts, began to deal more clearly with form and stillness, rather than motion and feeling. Inspired by
Trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
painting, children's art, and the work of
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
s in a simplified style that emphasized the reality of ordinary objects. In 1917 he met
Giorgio de Chirico
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian
artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...
in Ferrara, and worked with him there for several weeks. Influenced by de Chirico, Carrà began including
mannequin
A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles ...
imagery in his paintings. The two artists were the innovators of a style they called "
metaphysical painting". By 1919, Carrà's metaphysical phase was giving way to an archaicism inspired by the works of
Giotto
Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. ...
, whom he admired as "the artist whose forms are closest to our manner of conceiving the construction of bodies in space." Carrà's painting ''The Daughters of Lot'' (1919) exemplifies the new direction of his work. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, he concentrated mainly on landscape painting and developed a more atmospheric style. An example from this period is his 1928 ''Morning by the Sea''.
He is best known for his 1911 Futurist work, ''
The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli''. Carrà was indeed an anarchist as a young man but, along with many other Futurists, later held more
reactionary
In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the '' status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abs ...
political views, becoming
ultranationalist
Ultranationalism or extreme nationalism is an extreme form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains detrimental hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its sp ...
and
irredentist
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire that one state annexes a territory of a neighboring state. This desire is motivated by ethnic reasons (because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent sta ...
before and during the war. He supported
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...
after 1918. In the 1930s, Carrà signed a manifesto in which called for support of the state ideology through art. The ''Strapaese'' group he joined, founded by
Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964) was an Italian painter and printmaking, printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases ...
, was strongly influenced by fascism and responded to the
neo-classical guidelines which had been set by the regime after 1937, but was opposed to the ideological drive towards strong
centralism
Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a partic ...
.
Carrà died in Milan in 1966.
Selected works
*''
The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'' (1911)
*''
The Enchanted Chamber'' (1917)
*''
The Metaphysical Muse
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'' (1917)
*''
The Daughter of the West
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
'' (1919)
*''
The Engineer's Lover'' (1921)
*''
Canale a Venezia Canale may refer to:
Places
;Italy
* Canale, Piedmont, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cuneo
* Canale, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, a ''frazione'' in the Province of Trento
* Canale d'Agordo, a ''comune'' in the Province of Belluno, Veneto
* C ...
'' (1926)
File:Funeraloftheanarchistgalli.jpg, 1911, '' The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'', oil on canvas, 198.7 x 259.1 cm, Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
, New York
File:Carlo Carrà, 1911, Rhythms of Objects (Ritmi d'oggetti), oil on canvas, 53 x 67 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera.jpg, 1911, ''Rhythms of Objects'' (''Ritmi d'oggetti''), oil on canvas, 53 x 67 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera
The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...
File:Carlo Carrà, Il cavaliere dello spirito occidentale (1917).jpg, 1917, ''Il cavaliere dello spirito occidentale (Western Horseman)'', 52 x 67 cm, private collection
File:Carlo Carrà, 1918, L'Ovale delle Apparizioni (The Oval of Apparition), oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm.jpg, 1918, ''L'Ovale delle Apparizioni'' (''The Oval of Apparition''), oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna
The ("national gallery of modern and contemporary art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art gallery in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then Minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contemporar ...
, Rome, or Collezioni R. Jucker, Milan
File:Carlo Carrà, 1919, Le figlie di Loth, oil on canvas, 111 x 80 cm, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto.jpg, 1919, ''Le figlie di Loth'', oil on canvas, 111 x 80 cm, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto
The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART) (''Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto'', in Italian) is a museum centre in the Italian province of Trento. The main site is in Rovereto, and contains m ...
References
Sources
Carrà at the Peggy Guggenheim CollectionCarrà at the Mart, Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e RoveretoMark Antliff, "Fascism, Modernism, and Modernity", in ''The Art Bulletin'', March 2002*Elizabeth Cowling and Jennifer Mundy, ''On Classic Ground: Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-1930'', London:, Tate Gallery, 1990
*Karen Pinkus, ''Bodily Regimes: Advertising under Italian Fascism'',
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...
-
Saint Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
,
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its boo ...
, 1995
*Stanislao G. Pugliese, ''Italian Fascism and Anti-Fascism: A Critical Anthology'',
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
,
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...
, 2001
External links
Ten Dreams Galleries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carra, Carlo
Italian Futurist painters
Italian fascists
Italian muralists
1881 births
1966 deaths
Art writers
Italian male painters
Brera Academy alumni
Brera Academy faculty
People from Quargnento
20th-century Italian painters