Renato Guttuso was born in Bagheria in 1911, and is one of the most important representatives of the Italian neo-realist current. He died in Rome, after a long artistic and political career, in 1987. We cannot talk about Guttuso's art without talking about his social commitment, even before his active political experience in the Senate. The painter's childhood saw the decline of Sicily, and a series of power struggles in his Bagheria, as well as in Palermo, which could only shake him. The visual themes of Sicily - lemon groves, olive trees, markets and farmers - are inevitably flanked by social themes that are so evident in Sicily, and that the presence of the fascist regime can only exacerbate.
Gattuso's social and political commitment thus becomes more and more uncovered: and goes hand in hand with the rejection of the academy's canons, and with the adhesion to the artistic movement of the "Current", decidedly in opposition to the culture of the regime and to fascism. Emblematic in this sense is the painting that earned him his fame, that Crucifixion of 42 that he presented at the Bergamo prize and which exploited the sacred argument to denounce the horrors of war, gaining fierce criticism from both political and clerical sides.
After the war and the fascist regime defeated, if the commitment did not fall on the political front, the artistic work however opened up to new topics and themes: examples are the many paintings depicting the favorite muse and model, Marta Marzotto, to whom the mixed techniques of the "Postcards" are also dedicated.