Portrait Of Marinetti 1915

Carlo Carra made this portrait of Marinetti with oil on canvas, using brushstrokes that feel as restless as the sitter himself. The way Carrà applied the paint—thickly, in broken touches—creates a visual sensation almost like the noise of a busy city. Notice how the artist built up the image with short, sharp marks, especially in the background and around the edges of the figure. It’s a painting technique that mimics the staccato rhythms that the Futurists, including Marinetti, were so interested in. This wasn’t just about aesthetics; it was a conscious effort to break from the past. The Futurists wanted their art to reflect the speed, energy, and even the violence of the modern world, especially the industrialized one. They saw beauty in machines and speed, not in traditional landscapes or portraits. So, next time you look at this painting, think about the artist’s hand and the way he used the oil paint to convey the feeling of a world in motion, a world of labor and constant production. This is how the Futurists tried to put the modern world on canvas.