Artwork of the month - November 2021

The painting represents a group of five male football players. The characters, two of whom are in the foreground with their backs to each other, are portrayed in different positions and are dressed with shirts and shorts; the ball is in the top left-hand corner.
Shown at the II Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale in 1935 with the title Synthesis of a Football Game, the painting is characterised by the careful balance of the bodies, the studied rhythmic and chromatic harmonies and the rising movements suggested by the excitement of the scene.
Carrà, who was not a fan in the traditional sense, was very interested at the football and considered it one of the most fascinating shows of movement and the crowd. In June 1934, the Italian national football team beat Czechoslovakia and won the World Cup for the first time. Apart from the content and the link with the present day, the sporting themes were a precious opportunity for Carrà to measure himself against the theme of movement and emotional participation that characterises sporting competition.

This interest can be seen not only in the painting but also in contemporary artworks such as Atleti in riposo, Nuotatori and Nello stadio, as well as, in the large format of the wall decoration, in the fresco painted in the hall of the Palazzo dell'Arte in Milano. Here, Achille Funi had in turn painted the fresco entitled Giochi atletici italiani, probably one of the inspiration for Carrà's painting. Sports themes enjoyed great success during the years of the Fascist regime, celebrating young, agile and vigorous athletes as examples of the vitalistic drive and yearning for excellence of the Italian nation and people. Artists such as Rosai, Campigli, Funi, Tato, Munari, Moschi, Pirandello, Janni and Afro were authors of sports subjects, more or less declaring and telling. The two editions, in 1936 and 1939, of the National Exhibition of Sports Art promoted by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) testify to this interest.

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