This appeal was successful and has now closed.
Carlo Carrà’s Leaving the Theatre, 1910 requires urgent restoration; inadequate tensioning on the stretcher is causing the canvas to sag and become distorted. It is essential for this work to be completed now to prevent further deterioration and to ensure that the painting can continue to be loaned for exhibitions promoting Futurism and the Estorick Collection worldwide.
Our fundraising target is £3,000. By donating to the restoration of the work you will not only become a part of its history, but will also help to ensure its future, enabling our visitors to enjoy it for many more years to come.
Conservation will be completed by Ezio Buzzegoli – a specialist in his field who has worked on the restoration of Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo in Florence and is part of the FUTURAHMA Research Project.
The painting is one of the most important works of early Futurism, painted in the ‘Divisionist’ style typical of the movement’s initial phase. It captures the dynamism of modern city life in shimmering dashes of paint that create a vivid sense of animation and flux. Leaving the Theatre was displayed in the famous 1912 Futurist exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, Paris. It passed into the Estorick Collection in late 1958. It has featured in many landmark exhibitions, such as Futurism (London: Tate Modern, 2009) and, most recently, Italian Futurism 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2014).