CARLO CARRA, artist in Futurism & biography: with quotes from his auto-biography on painting Futuristic art and life, by the Italian painter famous for ‘The Raid’
CARLO CARRA (1881 – 1966) 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’. Carrá 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 ‘The Raid’ in 1910. After World War 1. Carrà began to deal more clearly with form and stillness, along with De Chirico as he described in his autobiography. At the bottom some useful art links for more biography facts about Carra (ed: Fons Heijnsbroek)
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Carra: ‘The funeral of the anarchist Galli’, 1911 |
CARLO CARRA, 16 artist quotes from his autobiography, on art & life in Italian Futurism, by the painter
- 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)
* CARLO 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 (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 of Carra 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.
* CARLO 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. 154 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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)
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘L’’Éclat de choses ordinaries’, Carrà; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 27 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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)
* CARLO 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. 29 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- …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
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘The painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells’, Boccioni, in ‘Lacerba’ vol. 1. no. 17, 1,Florence, 1 September 1913, pp. 186-186 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘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 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 146 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 146 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- Reds, rrrrreds, the rrrrreddest rrrrreds that shouuuuuuut.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 160 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- (paintings as) the plastic equivalent of the sounds, noises and smells found in theatres, music-halls, cinemas, brothels, railways station, ports.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 182 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- He (Picasso, fh) is almost one of us.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: “Carlo Carra – Ardengo Soffici: Lettere 1913 – 1929”, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1983, p. 246 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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.
* CARLO CARRA, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: ‘Piani plastici come espanzione sferica nello spazio’, Carra, March 1913; as quoted in “Futurism”, ed. By Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 142 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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, source of art and life quotes by the Italian Futurist artist: “Abstract Art”, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson 1990, p. 26 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- Stumbling into the midst of anarchists, barely 18 years old, I too started to dream of ‘inevitable changes inhuman society, free love, etc.
* CARLO 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. 140 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
- 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.
* CARLO 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. 148 (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 of Carra at the bottom)
art links for more biography facts of the Italian artist Carlo Carrà, painter in Futurism
* short biography on art and life of Carlo Carrà, Guggenheim museum
* short biography about life and creating art by the Futurist painter artist Carlo Carrà, on Wikipedia
