The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911) by Carlo Carrà
Still Life with Old Shoe (1937) by Joan Miró
Carlo Carrà, a leading figure of the futurist movement, and Joan Miró, a surrealist artist, are remarkably similar artists in that each utilizes dark shades, lack of bright light, and intense exclusive colors to convey the emotions or meaning of the subject in their respective paintings. Although the works of art, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli and Still Life with Old Shoe, created by Carrà and Miró respectively, were made almost three decades apart, each painting depicts a grim scenery with the help of expressive color choices.
The painting The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli by Carlo Carrà was painted in 1911 in Italy. As a leader of the futurist artistic movement, Carrà created works of art centered on concepts of the future, one of them including violence. The subject of this piece of artwork, as the title suggests, is the funeral procession of the Italian anarchist Angelo Galli. Police in fear that the event would become a political protest barred anarchist mourners from entering the cemetery. Thus a chaotic clash ensued between police forces and anarchists. Carrà illustrates the tension and hatred apparent in the scene. The shades and hues of the color red convey the feelings of aggression and act of war apparent in this scuffle between police and anarchists. The artist relies on dark shadows, the dark color of the black anarchist flag, and lack of bright colors to express the idea of death and the danger in the violent gathering.
Although the subject matter of Joan Miró’s painting, Still Life with Old Shoe, differs from the clearly gruesome nature of Carrà’s art, the two artists each employ specific colors and dark shadows to embody a sorrowful message. During his stay in Paris in 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Miró created this particular still life of a table with an old shoe. As it is understood, in this painting Miró expresses his anguish over the war-ridden situation in his homeland of Spain. The artist detailed the rise of evil in Spain through the use of the color green, which often exudes a sinister feeling. This inclusion of different shades and tints of green as well as the use of black and lack of light further portrays the declining and monstrous nature of Miró’s Spain. The color is acidic, highly saturated, and, in correlation with the other colors such as muted red, yellow, blue, and brown, somewhat dissonant.
As the futurist movement influenced the surrealist artistic movement, Carlo Carrà and Joan Miró produced similar emotional, oil on canvas, art pieces. Despite the fact the paintings were produced 26 years apart, each artist uses specific colors to portray tension and war, as in the red used in The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, and as in the green used in Still Life with Old Shoe.
