Mario Sironi

By 1913, Balla, Boccioni and Severini had developed a new style—Futurism—which Sironi also adopted for a brief time, although his work showed little of the characteristic Futurist exaltation of speed and modernity.

In 1922, Sironi was one of the founders of the Novecento Italiano movement, which was part of the return to order in European art during the post-war period.

[6] In the late 1920s, Sironi painted monumental figures of nudes, peasants, and family groupings in bare, mountainous landscapes.

[8] Rejecting the art market and the concept of the easel painting, he became committed to the ideal of a fusion of decoration and architecture, as exemplified by Gothic cathedrals.

Although his esthetic of brutal monumentality represented the dominant style of Italian fascism, his work was attacked by right-wing critics for its lack of overt ideological content.

[10] As an artist closely identified with Fascism, Sironi's reputation declined dramatically in the post-World War II period.

[5] In the postwar years, Sironi fell from favor due to his earlier association with Fascism, and was accorded little attention from art historians.