Artists at War: Artistic Identities and the Politics of Culture in Post-World War I Italy

Abstract

Storchi looks at how the experience of the First World War was inscribed in the artistic theorization of Ardengo Soffici and Carlo Carra, who had been part of the Italian Avant-garde during the pre-war years and had been active as interventionist when the war broke out. Through the analysis of the artists’ writings between 1918 and 1921, this chapter demonstrates how, despite having different experiences of the war, these artists claimed the same principles: the interconnection between aesthetics and politics and the idea of the nation as key to the renewal of Italian art. Storchi shows how Soffici’s and Carra’s personal, artistic and political identities were shaped by the war, and how they, in turn, had a key role in shaping the cultural milieu of post-war Italy.