Tullio Crali
The curves and angles in Tullio Crali’s paintings evoke a sense of height, excitement and dizziness, parallel to that of flying in a military plane. His works break down normative perspectives with shifting proportions and movement. Here, the real becomes fantasy-like and distorted emphasizing a fervor around newness and technology.
Born on the coast of Montenegro in 1910, Italian artist, Tullio Crali, was well known for his realist Futurist paintings. Crali, a self taught painter, studied at a local technical institute and discovered Futurism when he was 15 years old. After taking his first flight in 1928, the artist was immensely inspired by his aerial viewpoints and translated it through art. In 1929, he made contact with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of Futurism, and officially joined the artistic movement.
Carli was a part of the second generation of Futurists that expressed Aeropittura, or Aeropainting, and sought to convey the experience of flight through his paintings. He exhibited at Trieste, Padua, and in the first Aeropittura exhibit in Paris. He also participated in the Roman Quadrennial in 1935, 1939, and in 1943 as well as the Venice Biennale of 1940. He went on to be a part of the International Exhibition of Sports Arts at the 1936 Berlin Olympics with Dottori and Prampolini. A passionate proponent of Futurism, Tullio Crali created many manifestos throughout his life advocating for new perspectives and fresh takes on artistic expression. His works breathe and move with an anticipation of what is to come.
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