Renato Guttuso, Footballers (1965)

Oil on canvas, 160x132 cm
Florence, Collezione Mario Piccinini

The same approach of Guidi towards the footballers is here suggested by Renato Guttuso, but the intention is different. Gattuso himself in his Footballers realized in 1965 avoids to represent athletes' faces, even if bodies, muscles and jerseys are well outlined. A footballer is even turned in front of the observer but his face is completely black.
This maybe is owed to the political ideals of Guttuso, so his poetic wants to make a visual expression of his social engagement: then, his footballers are the extolling of the athletes playing football without being part of the football history but working for their team. Everyone remembers the famous goal of Maradona in the 1986 World Football Championship but few people remembers who gave him the ball. But Guttuso is also interested in the athletic meaning of football, and we can notice this looking at the muscles of the footballers.

A project by
Federico Giannini

Museo Ugo Guidi
(Forte dei Marmi)

Associazione Amici
del Museo Ugo Guidi
Onlus


Humanities
Computing

University of Pisa