Carlo Carrà (Quargnento 1881 - Milan 1966)

As a young man, he studied the great artists of painting while travelling around Europe, from Courbet and the Impressionists in Paris to Constable and Turner in London. His beginnings bore the traces of late Lombard Romanticism and revealed considerable points of contact with Divisionist painting until, in 1910, his name was among the ranks of the early Futurists. The decisive meeting in Ferrara with De Chirico, Savinio and De Pisis took place in 1916 and inaugurated a particular formal declination of metaphysical painting that lasted until 1921. Thus, works such as La camera incantata and L'amante dell'ingegnere were born. In 1919, he published 'Pittura Metafisica' and joined the group of the magazine 'Valori Plastici', initiating that process of simplifying the construction of the image, which was to become the driving motif of his production from the 1920s onwards. Carrà's rediscovery of natural reality, which he achieved later during a stay in Liguria, also took place in the context of the recovery of a new formal balance and the tradition of Italian culture. Between 1922 and 1938 he held the art column in the "Ambrosiano"; he exhibited at the Novecento exhibitions and regularly at the Venice Biennials, Triennials and Quadrennials. From 1941 to 1952 he occupied the chair of painting at the Brera Academy. His graphic production is also rich, including numerous illustrations for poetic texts.