Figure, Light and Atmosphere

This self-portrait of Pippo Rizzo, a Sicilian painter from Corleone, is an early testimony to the artist’s participation in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Italian Futurism movement. The decomposition of planes and light and the identification of lines of force directly refer to Giacomo Balla’s painting of the 1910s. Whereas the luminism of the planes and the use of very bright reds and yellows against the background of dark colours might be a tribute paid to the painting of Umberto Boccioni, who had prematurely died in 1916.