Guttuso, Guernica, Gramsci: Art, History and the Symbolic Strategy of the Italian Communist Party

Pucci, Lara

Abstract

The Italian Communist artist Renato Guttuso found in Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica a language with which to confront the violence of his time, from fascism and the Nazi occupation to the era of Christian Democracy and the Cold War. This article examines Guttuso’s sustained dialogue with Guernica in his art and writing in the 1930s to the 1950s, a practice that paralleled the symbolic strategy of the Italian Communist Party, which was informed by the political theories of Antonio Gramsci. In tracing the connections between Guttuso, Guernica and Gramsci, it seeks to shed light on the role of art in communist constructions of history.

Citation

Pucci, L. (2020). Guttuso, Guernica, Gramsci: Art, History and the Symbolic Strategy of the Italian Communist Party. Tate Papers, 2020(33),

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2020
• Journal: Tate Papers
• Print ISSN: 1753-9854
• Electronic ISSN: 1753-9854
• Publisher: Tate Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2020
• Issue: 33
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3694998
• Publisher URL: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/33/guttuso-guernica-gramsci-art-history-symbolic-strategy-italian-communist-party