The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art dedicates the exhibition “Mario Sironi: between Futurism and the Urban Landscape 1914-1920” to this phase of the artist’s development with a collection of drawings acquired by Eric Estorick in 1948, when he visited Sironi’s studio in Milan. Estorick’s strong interest in the Sardinian artist lead him to assiduously collect his paintings during the whole of the fifties, documenting every phase of his artistic career.
On display enthusiasts can see an ink drawing from 1915 entitled Cavallo Futurista con Cavaliere con Cavaliere (Futurist Horse and Rider) which employs a technique familiar to the futurists, that of multiplying the legs of the animal to suggest movement. The exhibition then traces his subsequent distancing from futurist ideals to develoop a muscular, monumental style which was to become the hallmark of the Novecento school. This new artistic direction was laid out in the 1920 manifesto of “Contro tutti i ritorni in pittura” (Against All Returns in Painting, which proposed art made from elementary solid forms, in contrast to the fragmentary volumes of Cubism and Futurism. And it is in this style that Sironi realised his images of the urban landscape, exploring the link between city and the human figure. Much of his work is in fact a response to the enigmatic imaginary of the metaphysical painters such as De Chirico and Carrà: figures which resemble manikins in deserted city streets (Figure Metafisiche del 1917 - Methaphisical Figures e Paesaggio metafisico e figura del 1918 - Metaphysical Landscape and Figure).
until 9.6.2002
Mario Sironi: between Futurism and the Urban Landscape 1914-1920
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
39a Canonbury Square, London
T +44-020-7704 9522 F +44-020-7704 9531
E-mail: curator@estorickcollection.com
