William Carassi - Man with a Flask

The work can be defined as a genre scene, that is, the depiction of an episode of everyday life that, apparently, lacks any significant element. These types of domestic subjects were long considered minor and only began to spread in Western art starting in the 17th century. Only with the development of 19th-century realism did everyday subjects become considered as important as historical or religious ones. The Impressionists, in particular, favored subjects related to modern life in urban, bourgeois settings. The present work, however, represents a different context: the genre scene depicts a simple, rural world with basic values. This is a typical iconographic theme of the painting style William Carassi refers to, namely the naive school, with a nod to 20th-century Yugoslavian painters.

The style of artist William Carassi is typical of the naive school, of which he is a worthy representative. The naive artist is by definition self-taught, someone who has not attended an academy but has found inspiration within himself. Stylistically, this translates into figurative painting that offers a simplified interpretation of reality, with childlike and unwittingly primitivist overtones. However, even the naive artist, in his spontaneity, possesses a self-awareness that leads him to develop a very specific aesthetic language, distinguishing it from amateurism. As we can see in this work, the process of simplifying reality is applied to a peasant world, guardian of the primary values ​​that naive painting seeks to extol. Furthermore, from a formal standpoint, Carassi's style transfigures reality into a fairytale dimension. The images, formed by pure lines and colors, become iconic, imbued with a blend of the archaic and the magical, precisely what we find in fairy tales.

William Carassi, an artist originally from Mantua, is a representative of the Italian naïve movement, yet draws strong influences from the contemporary Yugoslavian school. His paintings clearly demonstrate a desire to seek out a childishness and a magical dimension in representation, aiming to imbue the artwork with primordial values ​​of purity and innocence.

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