André Derain e l'arte italiana. Influenze reciproche

André Derain (1880-1954), one of the protagonists of Fauvism and Cubism, was a pioneer of his time: he took an innovative approach in addressing the poetics of the primitive and the classics in the early 1910s. His artwork shows striking affinities with some of the most important contemporary Italian artists. They all experienced the same socio-cultural context of transition, marked by the decline of the avant-garde and the beginning of the "call to order" in visual arts. In this research we will investigate Derain’s profound knowledge of the Italian Old Masters and artistic tradition, to later focus on a path of possible influences he exerted over Amedeo Modigliani, Carlo Carrà and Giorgio de Chirico. The vivid example of this artist's practice resonates in the artwork of Giorgio Morandi, Novecento Italiano and the Group of Six of Turin. Their proximity concerns formal affinities but also a similar esprit within their intellectual and artistic path, as it emerges in their critical essays, theories and personal notes. The critical investigation here conducted is willing to reveal the dialectical relationship between the French painter and the Italian ancient and modern artistic culture, inserting this experience in a wider context of lively cultural exchange between Italy and France in the early twentieth century.