Urban Landscape (Paesaggio Urbano), c. 1921

In the early part of his career Mario Sironi contributed to some of the most radical developments in Italian art. Initially allied with Umberto Boccioni and the Futurists, after World War I he rejected their rhetoric and aggression and gradually began to look at the Metaphysical painting of Giorgio de Chirico. Urban Landscape illustrates this shift. While still related to Futurism in its focus on the modern industrial city, the drawing’s ‘classical’ style, the eerie emptiness of the scene and the related sense of suspension are reminiscent of contemporary works by de Chirico, also pointing to the social tensions in the Milanese working classes at that time.