Carlo Carra is a famous Italian artist of the 20th century, an outstanding master of the futuristic trend in European fine art.

Carlo Carra was also a respected art theorist and wrote a number of scholarly works on the study of painting. According to the artist, the works of Giotto served as a source of inspiration for him for many years.

Biography of Carlo Carra

Carlo Carra was born in the small town of Quarniento. After graduating from high school, he moved to Milan, where he attended evening classes at the famous Brera Academy for several years. And during the day he was engaged in the manufacture of theatrical scenery.

In 1899, the young artist left for Paris, which at that time was considered the recognized center of modern fine art. In the French capital, he visited the World Exhibition of 1900. After which he went to London, where he became interested in leftist ideas and became a staunch anarchist.

After returning to his homeland, Carlo settled in Milan and lived in this city until the end of his life. In 1906, he entered the full-time department of the Brera Academy. For the next four years he studied painting under the guidance of Professor Cesare Tallon.

Futurism.

While still a student, Carra became interested in avant-garde art and in 1910 became one of the founders of Futurism. The poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti came up with the programmatic text of the movement called “Justification and Manifesto of Futurism”.

Under the influence of new friends, Carra became interested in cubism and created a number of paintings in this style. But after the outbreak of the First World War, under the influence of nationalist ideas, the artist’s creative tastes changed again. In 1916, he met Giorgio de Chirico in the hospital, whose paintings made a huge impression on Carlo. For several weeks they worked together.

At the final stage of his career, the artist completely abandoned revolutionary creative experiments. He painted realistic paintings inspired by the masterpieces of Giotto. In 1939, Carlo Carra became a professor at the Brera Academy in Milan and devoted more than 20 years of his life to teaching.

After the Second World War, the painter was often invited to large-scale exhibitions of contemporary art, where his works in the style of cubism, futurism and metaphysical painting aroused great interest among the public. At that time, Carra had great authority in the European artistic environment and was considered one of the greatest representatives of avant-garde art of the early twentieth century.

In the last twenty years of his life, the elderly master created few paintings.

Most of the time he taught students and wrote books on the theory of fine arts. And on April 13, 1966, Carlo Carra died in his apartment at the age of 85 and was buried in the central cemetery of Milan, where his grave is today.