Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2014
Realism to Surrealism: European art and culture 1848-1936
Italian Art between the Wars
Dr Christopher Allen
22/23 October 2014
Lecture summary:
Italian art of the twentieth century is generally little-known, with the exception of a few
names like De Chirico and Morandi, and the period between the wars is particularly
unfamiliar, although it has for that very reason now emerged as a new field of art-historical
research and rediscovery. One might imagine that the Fascist regime of Mussolini was as
hostile to modern art as the other contemporary totalitarian governments in Germany and
Russia. In fact the situation was very different; there were no aesthetic purges or
exhibitions of degenerate art, and the Fascists even embraced aspects of modernism as
expressions of dynamism and cultural energy. Modernism in architecture was also
favoured, so that the ‘modernist’ style in Italy is almost synonymous with the ‘Fascist style’
– a disconcerting observation which may ultimately serve to reveal certain affinities
between modernist architecture and totalitarianism.
Slide list:
Giorgio de Chirico, The Red Tower, 1913, Venice, Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Giorgio de Chirico, The Song of Love, 1914, oil on canvas, 73 x 59.1 cm, New York,
Metropolitan
* Giorgio de Chirico, L’enigma di un giorno, 1914, oil on canvas, New York, MoMA
Giorgio de Chirico, Le Muse inquietanti, 1916/1918, oil on canvas, 97.16 x 66 cm
Giorgio Morandi, Metaphysical still life, 1918
Giorgio Morandi, Still life, 1920
Umberto Boccioni, Two self-portraits, 1905
Umberto Boccioni, The Morning, 1909
Umberto Boccioni, Three Women, 1910
Carlo Carrà, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, 1910-11, oil on canvas, 198.7 x 259.1 cm,
New York, Museum of Modern Art
Umberto Boccioni, Elasticity, 1912
Umberto Boccioni, Synthèse du dynamisme humain, 1913
[destroyed]
* Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, Bronze, 111.44 cm high,
Milan, Museo del Novecento
* Futurist Synthesis of War, 1914
Futurist Synthesis of War, 1914
* Gino Severini, Maternità particolare, 1916, Cortona, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca
Carlo Carrà, Lot’s daughters, 1919, oil on canvas, 110 x 80 cm, Switzerland, Private
Collection
Mario Sironi, La Lampada, 1919, oil on canvas, 78 x 56 cm, Milan, Brera
Felice Casorati, Sylvana Cenni, 1922, tempera on canvas, 205 x 105 cm
Proudly sponsored by
Felice Casorati, Conversazione platonica, 1925; Private Collection
Antonio Donghi, Woman at the café, 1932, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, Venice, Cà Pesaro
Guido Peyron, Portrait of the poet Montale, 1932, oil on canvas, 100.5 x 81.5 cm,
Grassina, Coll. Vallacchi (?)
Vinicio Paladini, Dream complex No. 1, 1932; oil on canvas, 110 x 135 cm; Private
collection
* Tato (Guglielmo Sansoni), Flying over the Colosseum in a spiral, 1930, oil on canvas, 80
x 80 cm, Rome, Ventura Collection
Tullio Crali, Bombardamento urbano, 1935
Tullio Crali, Aerial bombardment
Tullio Crali, Incuneandosi nell’abitato, 1936
Tullio Crali, Horizontal Spin, 1938, oil on plywood 80 x 60 cm, Rome, Galleria d’arte
moderna
* Tullio Crali, Before the Parachute Opens, 1939
Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, 1932-34, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni
Adalberto Libera, Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Rome, 1932
Giuseppe Terragni, Casa del Fascio, Como, 1932-36
Giuseppe Vaccaro, Naples Post Office, 1936
Adalberto Libera, Palazzo delle Poste, Rome, 1933-35
Ernesto La Padula, Giovanni Guerrini, Mario Romano, Palazzo della Civiltà italiana, E.U.R,
Rome, 1937-40
Adalberto Libera (with Malaparte), Villa of Curzio Malaparte
Capri, 1938
Palais de Chaillot (Exposition Internationale, 1937)
Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer’s plan for a new Berlin, late 1930s
Moisei Ginzburg, The Narkomfin Building in Moscow, 1929-32
Le Corbusier, The Unité d’habitation (aka Cité radieuse), Marseille, 1947-52
Jacques Tati’s Film Mon Oncle, 1958
Reference:
Vivien Greene, ed., Italian Futurism 1909-1944: reconstructing the universe, New York,
Guggenheim, 2014
Pontus Hulten and Germano Celant, eds, Italian Art 1900-1945, New York, Rizzoli, 1989
Images:
Giorgio de Chirico, L’enigma di un giorno, 1914, oil on canvas, New York, MoMA
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, Bronze, 111.44 cm high,
Milan, Museo del Novecento
Futurist Synthesis of War, 1914
Gino Severini, Maternità particolare, 1916, Cortona, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca
Tato (Guglielmo Sansoni), Flying over the Colosseum in a spiral, 1930, oil on canvas, 80 x
80 cm, Rome, Ventura Collection
Tullio Crali, Before the Parachute Opens, 1939