In 1947, a number of young artists in Rome founded the Forma 1 group, which had a formative influence on the development of post-war Italian art. The members felt it was the primary task of art to contribute to the cultural renewal of society and published their convictions in a manifesto. Abstraction was seen as the only adequate style for the time of post-fascist Italy and they tried to make it clear that the aesthetic and political principles of formalism and Marxism could be combined within art.
