Piazza Del Duomo 1909

Carlo Carra daubed this painting, Piazza Del Duomo, with thick strokes of blues, greens, and yellows. It's like he grabbed globs of paint and swirled them around, trying to capture the energy of the square. I can imagine Carra standing there, feeling the buzz of the city, maybe even getting jostled by the crowd. He's trying to translate all that chaotic energy onto the canvas. It’s like he's wrestling with the paint, pushing it around until it starts to resemble the scene before him. Those heavy strokes, they aren't just describing what he sees, they're communicating his feelings about the place, the feeling of being in the midst of it all. You can see echoes of other artists, like the Impressionists, in his broken color and focus on light, but he's doing his own thing, pushing the boundaries. Artists are always riffing off each other. Each brushstroke is a continuation of a long conversation. What I love about painting is that it embraces the messy, the uncertain, the stuff that can’t be put into words.