"Describe without trying to be clever" This warning of Puskin was one of the mottoes that stood out in the studio of the great Sicilian artist, chosen to sum up his poetics and ethics as
a realist painter.
From among his works inspired by the the war in Algiers we shall take a picture 50 X 90 cm which simplified the event through the impact of two lifeless bodies stretched out on the ground, obscuring our view of the battle-field.
The work dated 1960 belongs to a group of works expressing the artis't's civil commitment which includes above all "The Battle of Ponte Ammiraglio" of 1952 and "The Discussion" of 1959.
The artistic charisma and expressive force of his works can be traced back to Picasso, and the
emblematic synthesis achieved, first with Guernica of 1937 and then with Massacre in Korea in 1951. Picasso had revolutionised ways of expressing and composing themes inspired by historical events.
Analogously to Picasso, Guttuso silhouetted on a neutral background the bodies of his two protagonists, stretched out, their bodies and lineaments
delineated clearly, paradigmatically. With the simple expressive force of a few gestures the artist represents the end of an absurd conflict.
The eyes of both are lifeless, their arms extended on the ground. This is the only hint of the earth and a black background as part of the composition. It evokes the terror of death and the end of everything, of life, social progress and the civil dimension of existence itself.
In the context of all his artistic productions, "Algiers" 1960, purports to sum up what it means, for Guttuso, to be an artist. This method which nearly always excludes a sketching phase. With an almost didactic urgency the artist completes a clear and obvious process, expressing in a few strokes something different, and powerful.
We see how the point of view expressed in the picture becomes an epilogue to folly, to the absurdity of war and colonialism in general. Here is a personal and almost ex tempore statement. It is far more than a mere reflection of history. It is a parable on life and death.
The realism of Guttuso is thus charged with metaphor and warning for his generation, strongly marked by the horrors of world conflict. Clearly it no longer pays to seize arms to be in control, and have dominion over others.
So the painter applies himself to paint in the simplest way. The boldly drawn black contours map out the field of expressiveness for different colours, overlapping and dimming, indicating different volumes and forms. The picture is lit up by unmistakablable red marks on bodies and faces which dirty the composition. These brutally connect the composition to the facts of contemporary events, and the essence of the episode which is the subject of the painting. From a technical point of view, the passage from what Guttoso sees or is given from experience, to what he reproduces seems generally a simple process of making his representation concrete. Neither here is the composition on canvas the fruit of a long intellectualised method. The picture almost constructs itself, one colour suggesting another, until it reaches the verisomilitude sought by the artist, which is acceptable or recognizable to the viewer.
