Renato Guttuso - Untitled

Animal depictions in art have ancient origins, appearing even in primitive cave paintings. For religious reasons, various types of animals appear in the works of various ancient civilizations. It was especially in the Middle Ages, within the International Gothic style, that animal depictions became widespread as true life portraits, both within works of art and in notebooks containing drawings and sketches. The presence of animals as subjects in art remained constant until the contemporary era. In this work, the Sicilian painter Renato Guttuso draws inspiration from tangled octopuses to develop, alongside his poetics of realism, a profound exploration of the subject's structure.

The work demonstrates how Guttuso's style always straddles the boundary between the phenomenal reality (that which we can apprehend through the senses) and the noumenal reality (that which we can investigate through the intellect) of the object. Indeed, his drawing structure is extremely solid, anchored to the perceptible world before his eyes. However, the way he interprets these octopuses demonstrates that his perception of the object, and especially of the object in space, goes beyond the phenomenon. Indeed, the representation is conducted along multiple directional lines, according to a non-univocal perspective. In this way, the structures of things are explored more deeply, breaking them down within the complex space created by the artist. Renato Guttuso's investigative process continues through the application of color, emphasizing areas of volume and highlighting the object's relationships with the space in which it interacts. Furthermore, Renato Guttuso employs an elaborate pictorial style that imbues the objects with existential vibrations.

Renato Guttuso, born in Bagheria in 1911 and died in Rome in 1987, was a painter deeply involved in politics and social issues. His artistic commitment stemmed from his socialist ideals and his outrage over social injustice and abuses of power. He participated in the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti group, developing a Realist-Expressionist style of painting and developing his "social art." Guttuso's most important works, expressing his neorealist art, were masterpieces such as Ficilazione in Campagna (Fucilation in the Countryside) and Fuga dall'Etna (Escape from Etna). He was also elected senator twice, in 1976 and 1979, for the Italian Communist Party.

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