CARLO CARRA, his quotes on painting art and life in Italian Futurism + biography facts
Carlos Carra (1881 – 1966), quotes on painting art and life in Futurism. Carra was one of the artists of Italian Futurism, initiated by Marinetti. In 1910 Carra signed, along with Umberto Boccioni, and Russolo the famous ‘Manifesto of Futurist Painters’. Carra was fascinated by masses in movements and had a lot of sympathy for the anarchist movement; several famous paintings of Carra were inspired by the motif of masses, like his painting ‘The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli’ in 1911. Later he became ultra-nationalist and joined after 1918 even Italian fascism. After World War 1. Carra began to deal more clearly with form and stillness, along with De Chirico (in his auto-biography).
* At the bottom biography facts & some art links for the Italian famous artist Carlo Carra. – the editor
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Carra: ‘The funeral of the anarchist Galli’, 1911 |
Carlo Cara, his quotes on painting & art and life in Italian Futurism
– Boccioni, Russolo and I all met in the Porta Vittoria café (Milan, fh), close to where we all lived, and we enthusiastically outlined a draft of our appeal (the Manifesto of Futurist Painters, late February, 1910, fh). The final version was somewhat laborious; we worked on it all day, all three of us and finished it that evening with Marinetti and the help of Decio Cinti, the group’s secretary. (the painters Bonzagni and Romani signed the famous Manifesto too, but withdraw soon; they were replaced by Balla and then Severini. (The chief editor was Boccioni, so the Manifesto quotes will be placed under Boccioni‘s quotes, fh)
* CARLOS CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: “La mia Vita”, Carrà; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 23 (Carlo Cara was an Italian painter in Futurism movement and friend of Boccioni – famous for his typical futurist paintings a.o. ‘The Raid’ and for his autobiography / testimonial La Mia Vita; art links for more biography facts at the bottom
– The idea for this picture (‘Uscita dal teatro / Leaving the theatre’, ca 1910, fh) came to me one winter’s night as I was leaving La Scala. In the foreground there is a snow sweeper with a few couples, men in top hats and elegant ladies. I think that this canvas, which is totally unknown in Italy, is one of the paintings where I best represented the concept that I had the time about my art.
* quote of the Futurist artist: “La mia Vita”, Carra; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 154
– It is the ordinary things that reveal those forms that reveal to us a superior way of being.
* artist quote of Carra, circa 1910, from ‘La Mia Vita’, Milan S. E. 1997; as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 301
– Boccioni and I were swiftly persuaded that with this show in Paris we were staking out all; for a flop would have meant kissing our fine aspirations goodbye. This is why we decided to go to Paris, to see what the art situation there was like. (around 1911, fh)
* artist quote from: ‘L’Éclat de choses ordinaries’, Carrà; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 27
– I was walking along the Boulevard des Italiens (February 1912, during a group exhibition of Futurist painters in Paris, fh), when, as I passed in front of a newspaper stand, I had the pleasant surprise of seeing on the front page of the Journal the reproduction of my picture ‘The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli’ (1910/11, fh)
* source: “La mia Vita”, Carrà; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger, Milan, 2008, p. 29
– …that dizzy seething of forms and acoustic lights, rowdy and smelly (in the paintings of the Futurist exhibition, February 1912 in Paris, fh)… …To obtain this total painting which calls for the active cooperation of all the senses: painting of the plastic mood of the universal, you have to paint the way drunkards sing and vomit, sounds, noises and smells
* source of quote: ‘The painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells’, Boccioni, in ‘Lacerba’ vol. 1. no. 17, 1,Florence, 1 September 1913, pp. 186-186
– This bubbling and whirling of forms and lights, composed of sounds, noises, and smells has been partly achieved by me in my ‘Anarchical funeral’, (1910-1911, fh)… …by Boccioni in ‘States of Minds’ and ‘Forces of a Street (both made in 1911, fh), by Russolo in ‘Rebellion’ (1911, fh) and Severini in ‘Pan-Pan (first version in 1909-1911, fh), paintings which were violently discussed at our first Paris exhibition in 1912.
* source of this futurist artist quote: ‘La Pittura dei suoni, rumori, odori, Carra, 11 Aug 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 142
– Constructions of a-rhythmical forms, the clash between concrete and abstract forms… …The acute angle is passionate and dynamic, expressing will and a penetrating force.
* quote from artist, in: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 146
– The Cubists, to be objective, restrict themselves to considering things by turning around them, to produce their geometric writing. So they remain at a stage of intelligence which sees everything and feels nothing, which brings everything to a standstill in order to describe everything. We Futurists are trying, on the contrary, with the power of intuition, to place ourselves at the very centre of things, in such a way that our ego forms with their own uniqueness a single complex. We thus give plastic planes as plastic expansion in space, obtaining this feeling of something in perpetual motion which is peculiar to everything living.
* source of art quote: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger
– Reds, rrrrreds, the rrrrreddest rrrrreds that shouuuuuuut.
* source of artist quote: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913
– (paintings as) the plastic equivalent of the sounds, noises and smells found in theatres, music-halls, cinemas, brothels, railways station, ports.
* source: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913
– He (Picasso, fh) is almost one of us.
* source: “Carlo Carra – Ardengo Soffici: Lettere 1913 – 1929”, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1983, p. 246
– We insist that our concept of perspective is the total antitheses of all static perspective. It is dynamic and chaotic in application, producing in the mind of the observer a veritable mass of plastic emotions.
* artist quote from: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carlo Carra, March 1913
– We stand for a use of colour free from the imitation of objects and things as coloured objects. We stand for an aerial vision in which the material of colour is expressed in all of the manifold possibilities our subjectivity can create. (statement on Futurism, 1913, fh)
* Carlo Carra, his artist quote, taken from: “Abstract Art”, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson 1990, p. 26
– In contrast to the concept of imitation, I propose an identification with things. This is the stimulus that drove Giotto to free himself of the Byzantine manner. The miracle by which medium, form, and spirit are unified could not be affirmed with greater energy… .I understand Giotto’s paintings because my painterly ideal contains his paintings.
* quote by Carlos Carrà from his text: Parlato su Giotto e Paolo Uccello construttore, ‘La Voce, 1914
– The poet-painter feels that his true, immutable essence stems from the invisible, which offers him an image of the real eternal. He feels like a plastic microcosm in a mediated contact with Omniscience. I thus surrender myself to the infinite part of eternity that is in me and I try to penetrate the hidden intimacy of ordinary things.
* Carlos Carrà’s quote from his text: Il guadrante dello spirito’ Valori plastici; May 1918; as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 301
– – Artistic creation demands a vigilant, diligent, attentive willpower and requires a constant effort not to lose the apparitions, which are nothing more than lightning bolts of ordinary things that when they illuminate create the essentials that are so precious to us modern artists….
* quote on artistic creation by Carlo Carrà, in his text: Poetica per una nuova pittura, 1919: as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 301
– What is it that makes our ears hear the breathing of so many things we thought were dead?
* quote on the human senses, by Carrà, in his text, Poetica per una nuova pittura, 1919: as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 291
– Stumbling into the midst of anarchists, barely 18 years old, I too started to dream of ‘inevitable changes inhuman society, free love, etc.
* art quote from: “La mia Vita”, Carrà; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 140
– I have said that Marinetti was… …exceptionally gifted, and I should add that I never saw him twiddling his thumbs even for ten minutes… …beside his desk he often kept piles of books in which he would write dedications… …invariably with the purpose of spreading the word about Futurism.
* source of art quote: “La mia Vita”, Carlo Carrà
art links for more biography facts of the Italian Futurist artist Carlo Carra (Carlo Cara)
* short biography on art and life of the Futurist artist, Guggenheim museum
* short biography about life and creating art by the Futurist painter artist Carlo Carrà, on Wikipedia
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