The exhibition, the first entirely dedicated to the famous 1920s aeropainter, will remain in the Historic Rooms of the AM Palace until 11 May, before moving from 31 May to 13 July to the AM Historic Museum in Vigna di Valle

Open to the public Saturday 5 April, at the Palazzo dell’Aeronautica in Rome, the exhibition “Tullio Crali. The Evolution of Flight, the first exhibition entirely dedicated to the aeropainter of the 1920s, curated by the art historian Barbara Martorelli.

Crali's powerful images, dynamic lines and innovative aesthetics, which have helped spread the aeronautical imagination since the very beginning through a visually intense expressive language, thus find today a suggestive and natural setting among the extraordinary frescoes of the Historic Rooms of Palazzo Aeronautica.

The exhibition will be opened on Friday 4 April, at 09:30, in the presence of authorities and distinguished guests. The exhibition can be visited at the Historic Rooms of Palazzo AM, free of charge and upon booking on the Armed Force's website, until 11 May, every Saturday and Sunday, Friday 18 April and Friday 25 April, from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM (last entry expected at 4:30 PM). The exhibition will subsequently be set up at the striking venue of Italian Air Force Museum of Vigna di Valle, on Lake Bracciano, recently renovated for the Centenary of the Italian Air Force, where it will be visitable from 31 May to 13 July 2025.

“Tullio Crali was an attentive and precise chronicler of his time, animated, like all great artists, by a profound sensitivity. From the enthusiasm of the first flights in the 1920s to the most dramatic moments of the Second World War, his art successfully captured the 20th century with a unique perspective, offering a vision capable of mitigating, at least in part, the horrors of war, alleviating the tension of pilots, and bringing aeropainting closer to the general public. Art, architecture, history, emotions, passion, style, modernity, innovation, technology, flight. This is the kaleidoscopic synthesis of the exhibition, as well as of Palazzo Aeronautica and, if we so wish, of the entire ”Blue Army'.” The words of the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, Air Squad General Luca Goretti.

Beyond 80 works among the most iconic of the Master's output will be exhibited along a chronological path together with interesting previously unseen items such as diaries, photos and archival material, and will recount the various phases of the artist's output: from the early experiments in Aeropainting, celebrated for their Aerial evolutions in the boundless spaces of the sky, like the most celebrated Entering the town (1939), all large-format canvases depicting the aerial views in the post-war period. The exhibition route will close with works from the artist's late phase dedicated to the Frecce Tricolori, the triptych of which will be loaned on a long-term basis by the artist's family to the Italian Air Force. The works come from the Crali family and from public and private collections, amongst which the Veneto Region and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Handicrafts and Agriculture of Venezia Giulia stand out.

Tullio Crali (1910-2000) is one of the most important exponents of Aeropainting, a pictorial movement of Italian Futurism that exalted the dynamism, speed and modernity of flight. His artistic output, which spans almost the entire twentieth century, represents a perfect synthesis between the audacious futurist aesthetic and the evolution of aeronautical technology. Crali became drawn to Futurism in the 1920s, fascinated by the energy and vision of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The turning point came in 1929, when the artist not only participated in the first Futurist exhibition, but also received a reply to a letter he had sent to Marinetti, in which the founder warmly welcomed the young artist into the Movement, thereby changing the course of his life forever.

The watercolours on paper from the late 1920s and early attempts to use oil on canvas convey the exhilaration of flight and speed through daring perspectives and bold chromatic fields of vivid colours. From the watercolours of the 1920s, the artist moves on to temperas and oils on panel. The young artist's hand becomes increasingly confident and the early oils of the 1930s express composure and solidity in the use of chiaroscuro, conveying the exhilaration of flight and speed through daring perspectives and bold chromatic fields of vivid colours without losing the freshness of the plastic experiments. The canvases of these years strike one for the elegance of the sinuous line, redolent of Prampolini, and the tension of metaphysical research tending towards abstraction.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of Milano Brothers Group (main sponsor) and MB Elettronica (sponsor).