Carlo Carrà (; February 11, 1881 – April 13, 1966) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

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: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Biography

Carrà was born in Quargnento, near

Alessandria Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandri ...

(

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

). 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. Si ...

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 necessari ...

, 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 di ...

(''Accademia di Brera'') in the city, and studied under

Cesare Tallone Cesare Tallone (1853–1919) was an Italian painter. Biography Born in Savona and after losing his father at the age of ten, Cesare Tallone moved with his mother and sisters to Alessandria, where he became a pupil of the decorative artist Piet ...

. In 1910 he signed, along with Umberto Boccioni, 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 Giot ...

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 inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, bo ...

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 infl ...

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 Metaphysical painting ( it, pittura metafisica) or metaphysical art was a style of painting developed by the Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. The movement began in 1910 with de Chirico, whose dreamlike works with sharp contra ...

". 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. G ...

, 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 ''The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli'' (''Il Funerale dell’anarchico Galli'') is a painting by Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished in 1911, during the artist's futurist phase, and is considered Carrà's most famous piece. The piece d ...

''. 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 st ...

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 t ...

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 printmaker who specialized in still life. His paintings are noted for their tonal subtlety in depicting simple subjects, which were limited mainly to vases, bottles, bo ...

, 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 particu ...

. Carrà died in Milan in 1966.

Selected works

*''

'' (1911) *'' The Enchanted Chamber'' (1917) *'' The Metaphysical Muse'' (1917) *'' The Daughter of the West'' (1919) *''

The Engineer's Lover ''The Engineer's Lover'' (Italian: L'amante dell'ingegnere'') is a painting by Italian painter Carlo Carrà. It was finished during the metaphysical phase of the artist (1921). It portrays an enigmatic head of a maiden on a brown table, flanked ...

'' (1921) *'' Canale a Venezia'' (1926) File:Funeraloftheanarchistgalli.jpg, 1911, ''

'', 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 between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

, 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 contempora ...

, 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

References

Sources

Carrà at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Carrà 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 thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

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 Salford to the west. The ...

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