Carrà was born
in Piedmont and followed in his father's footsteps as a decorator
and muralist, moving to Milan in 1895, where he later met
Boccioni
at the Brera Academy. Carrà experimented with Divisionism, but
like
Boccioni
was dissatisfied with current trends in painting.
Together with
Boccioni
and Russolo he drafted the
Manifesto of the Futurist Painters
and the
Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting
(both 1910), issuing his own manifesto
The Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells
in 1913. He also developed a lifelong friendship
with Soffici, traveling with him to Paris in 1914, where he was
inspired to experiment with Cubism and primitivism. He continued to
back the Futurist campaign, however, supporting Italy's
participation in the First World War. During the war years he
developed a strong interest in Italy's artistic past, particularly
the work of
Giotto
and
Paolo Uccello.
With
de Chirico
he formed the
short-lived Scuola metafisica in 1917, creating works depicting
enigmatic interiors and city squares. These prepared the way for
the consciously naïve figurative style he evolved after his
break with
de Chirico,
and throughout the 1920s he adopted a
naturalistic approach that remained unchanged until his death.