I nuotatori 1932

Carlo Carra made I Nuotatori, The Swimmers, a 63.5 x 108.5 cm painting, at an unknown date, using oil on canvas. Look at how he’s handled the paint here; there’s a real emphasis on the process of applying colour and the figures are built up from rough marks, it’s like he’s sculpting with pigment. And what colours! Muted greens and blues for the sea, but then these bodies in reddish hues, it makes them seem so alive. I’m drawn to the figure wading in the centre. The way he’s captured the curve of the spine, the angle of the head, it’s a beautiful study of anatomy. But also, he’s surrounded by water that has been applied in a way that makes it feel less like an environment and more like a force – the water seems to almost want to erase the figures. It reminds me of the work of Giorgio de Chirico, another Italian artist who was interested in stripping away the surface to find the real, raw emotions that lie beneath. Art doesn’t give us answers, but it asks us to look, to feel, and to keep questioning.