words by Carol King
One of Italy’s most famous 20th-century artists, Carlo Carrà, is honoured with a major retrospective opening on 27 October at the Fondazione Ferrero in the town of Alba in Cuneo, Piedmont.
‘Carlo Carrà 1881-1966’ gathers together the Piedmontese artist’s major works from museums worldwide and private collections. The 60 artworks selected for display are intended to take the visitors through the various stages of Carrà’s development: from his first experiments with Divisionism, to his pioneering Futurist masterpieces, and forays into pittura metafisica (Metaphysical painting) influenced by fellow artist Giorgio de Chirico, and the Magic Realist style. The show also includes Carrà’s landscapes from the early 1920s, melancholy monumental figurative works from the 1930s influenced by the 15th-century Italian painter Masaccio, as well as examples of Carrà’s sombre still lifes and mature paintings known for their atmospheric brushwork.
Carrà is a major figure in Italian modern art and best known as one of the innovative artists who aligned themselves with Futurist poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti to issue Il manifesto dei pittori futuristi (The Manifesto of Futurist Painters) in 1910. Carrà and other Futurists emphasised the dynamic nature of movement in their work as they sought to celebrate Italy’s modernity and recent industrialisation.
The exhibition runs until 27 January 2013.
