Felice Carena (Cumiana 1879 - Venice 1966) was started painting at Accademia Albertina by Giacomo Grosso, but by his master he had few topics, inspiring his art, at the first time, by Leonardo Bistolfi, and especially to the artists of the second succession (Franz von Stuck) with a predilection for the soft French Carrière depths.
Ended its activities by war, in 1919 he was at the Promotrice of Turin with the painting "I contadini del sole." After two decades since its first participation, he had marked his painting to a kind of spacious and solid realism of VII century.
With the "Il porcaro e la quiete” (Biennale 1922) the figure was at the forefront in the renewal of classical Italian painting of the Twenties.
His painting, always airy and classical, aimed mainly on mythological subjects, with a sense of grandeur and brightness, while developed alongside the more troubled theme of sacred themes and of Pietà, where the colour became more damped, with a propensity to have a simply form.
The war marked a caesura in the celebrated master. He began a sort of "exile" in Venice where he lived secluded. His last years are marked by still lifes and sacred works.
In 2010 the exhibition “Felice Carena e gli anni di Venezia” at Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere and Arti of Palazzo Franchetti in Venice. Twenty years after the last exibition in Turin, it is the first major opportunity to rediscover and re-evaluate the Master through a critical date, carefully retracing the Venetian years, and also his long career of painting, rich in references and evolving design solutions. On display are a selection of exemplary works, more than 90 works from major Italian museums and private collections, which, arranged chronologically in seven sections, illustrating the different periods of the artistic career of Felix Hull to capture the originality and unique qualities painting of the Venetian period.
In 2011 the Gallery of Modern Art in Udine, inaugurated the exhibition “Omaggio a Felice Carena. La donazione Michelazzi in memoria di Wanda Leskovic”. Six new paintings on display in Hull already belonged to the pianist of Udine Wanda Leskovic and now donated to the Museum by Gino Michelazzi, his cousin and heir. It is five still life and a female nude painted by the artist between 1957 and 1960 in Venice donated as a token of esteem and friendship with Wanda Leskovic.
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