Mr. Eric Estorick, in assembling his collection of paintings, sculpture and drawings by contemporary Italian artists has not allowed himself to be swayed by the wayward trends of the international market. He has been to Italy, paid many visits to studios, and has tried to form his own opinion of a situation which is not particularly easy to judge.
Mr. Estorick has produced this exhibition which gives a clear view of the various phases in Italian art during the past forty years: the Futurist movement (Balla, Boccioni, Carrà , Severini, Soffici, Russolo), the metaphysical school (de Chirico and Morandi), the so-called magic realism of Carrà , the reaction of the Novecento group (Sironi), the reaction in its turn against the Novecento of the Fronte nuovo delle arti (Cassinari and Guttuso).
In addition there are a number of artists who do not fit into any of these movements but have shown themselves to be painters of indisputable quality (Modigliani, de Pisis, Campigli, Casorati, Pirandello).