(Igalo, Montenegro 1910–2000 Milan)
‘Medicante e Tabarin (antagonismo sociale)’, signed Crali, titled on the stretcher, signed and dated Crali 1931, verso titled ANTAGONISMO SOCIALE, oil on wooden panel, 70 x 80 cm, (PP)

Provenance:
Collection Franco Marinotti
Private Collection, Perugia
Collection Enrico Ricci, Mornico al Serio (1988–2001)
Collection Lodovico Basurini, Bergamo
Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Bergamo (2002–2010)
Collection VAF-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main (2010)
Collection Volker W. Feierabend, Italy

Exhibitions:
Gorizia, Mostra Personale di Tullio Cralida Igalo, April 29th –May 5th, 1936, exhib.-cat. Sala II no. 18 (there titled "Antagonismo: forme sudicie di un mendicante in contatto con l'atmosfera intricatissima mondana di un tabaren", with wrong dating: 1933)
Dortmund, ... auch wir Maschinen, auch wir mechanisiert: Die zweite Phase des italienischen Futurismus 1915–1945, Museum am Ostwall, 10 March – 16 June 2002, exh. cat., pages 246 and 313 (curated by M. Scudiero, G. Lista, E. Gudrun, G. Belli, I. Bartsch);
Bergamo, Il futuro dei futurismo. Dalla ‘rivoluzione italiana’ all’arte contemporanea. Da Boccioni a Fontana a Damien Hirst, GAMeC, 21 September 2007 – 24 February 2008, exh. cat., page 126 with ill. (curated by G. Di Pietrantonio and M. C. Rodeschini);
Bergamo, Anni ‘20-’30. Omaggio al Futurismo. Da Balla a Prampolini, Galleria d’arte Bergamo, 2 October – 20 November 2010, no exhibition catalogue. This work was featured as an illustration on the invitation to this exhibition.

Tullio Crali came in contact with the Futurist movement in Naples in 1975. From that moment onwards, he devoted himself entirely to it as a genuine “artistic religion” to which he remained faithful for decades. In the early 1930s, he made the acquaintance of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and began to exhibit his works both in Italy and abroad, becoming famous especially as a representative of “aeropainting”. Initially he probably followed the model offered by the first masters of Futurism, such as Umberto Boccioni, who seems to have provided young Crali with his main source of inspiration for his canvas Mendicante e Tabarin - antagonismo sociale (‘beggar and nightclub - social antagonism’), dated 1931. In this painting, the intense and lively use of colours, the dynamism created by the intersection of straight lines and soft curves, the decomposition of forms that does not exclude the presence of realistic elements – all this is reminiscent of Boccioni’s artistic output in the early 1910s. However, Crali’s painting is far from the colossal ambitions that characterised Boccioni’s Futurist works. Rather, it seems to be infused with the more intimate atmosphere with a trace of gloom that is typical of the nightclubs known as “tabarin”, not without subtle social criticism, as is also evident in the title of the painting. All these elements would subsequently disappear from the swirling, euphoric perspectives of the artist’s later aeropaintings.

Provenance:
Private Collection, Perugia
Collection Enrico Ricci, Mornico al Serio (1988–2001)
Collection Lodovico Basurini, Bergamo
Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Bergamo (2002–2010)
Collection VAF-Stiftung, Frankfurt am Main