Painting and Italian spirit by Tullio Crali: the 1940s in four works

Abstract

The 1940s represent a complex and fecund decade for Tullio Crali. His reputation follows a trajectory that commences with national prominence gained at the 1940 and 1942 Venice’s Biennales and ends with nation-wide obscurity. His concurrent stylistic evolution is difficult to reconcile with the notion of an artist who, through his archive, tried to represent himself as consistently Futurist from his early beginnings to the end of his life. Finally, this is a decade in which his «Italianness » remains a constant theme in his reflections. Crali’s Italian-ness is complex, implying active engagement with the national cause and manifesting itself in a variety of ways during the decade.