I have just returned from the monthly meeting of the regional Italian Circle, where the lecture on this occasion was on the life and work of Carlo Levi. He is best known, of course, for the book Christ Stopped at Eboli, in which he gave an account of his exile during the fascist period in a remote rural area in the South of the Country. Although I have read his book (admittedly some long time ago) I had not appreciated the extent to which painting figured in his life. Today’s talk, illustrated copiously, centred particularly on his painting rather than his writing.
He was evidently very accomplished both as a landscape artist and as a portrait painter, and the question I left asking myself was why I had never been made aware of his stature in these respects. Thinking about this question in the car on the way home I believe that I can at least make a suggestion.
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of the fact that I have taken a consistent interest in the history of Italian modern art over a period of several years. Levi has never, to my recollection, surfaced as a significant figure in that development. It struck me that perhaps there is an explanation in the manner in which tat history has been written. The emphasis seems always to be on process and development …. on innovation …. and organised around the appearance of “schools” and groups, such as futurism or the journal Correnti. Levi cannot be fitted into any of these trigger terms. He was not an innovator, except in his subject-matter. He never sought to promote a stylistic ideology. Added to this, of course, exiled as he was in the region of Basilicata, remote from the metropolitan centres in which the artistic elite lived and moved, he had no opportunity to take part in such debates, even should he have wished to do so.
I have come to the conclusion, however, that Carlo Levi deserves a great deal more attention than I have given him.