Carlo Carra and Metaphysical Art

La Figlie di Loth 1919 by Carra

Madre e Figlio 1934 by Carra
Daughters of Lot 1940 by Carra
Italians Carlo Carra and Giorgio De Chirico were friends. They created an art movement called Pittura Metafisica or Metaphysical Art (1917) which influenced surrealism and dada. Mysterious, poetic and dreamlike, their paintings looked to the past for inspiration - to the work of Italian artists like Giotto in particular. They made poetry out of familiar objects by isolating them or placing them together in claustrophobic rooms or outdoors in shadowy Italian squares. Both painters were concerned with giving the objects an inner life of their own through odd juxtapositions and simple, almost stark rendering that pointed to a "higher, more hidden state of being" (Carra). This selection of Carra paintings are later works, but they still show his metaphysical tendencies. I have always been very inspired by the works of Carlo Carra (I don't really relate to his early futurist works, however) and by the metaphysical works of Giorgio De Chirico.
Metaphysical Art
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