Renato Guttuso was one of the more influential, well known Italian painters of the 20th century. He was a lifelong communist who loved the dolce vita — his long-term mistress Marta Marzotto was a countess — and his oeuvre is as brimful of contradictions as his life. Pablo Neruda was a witness at his wedding. Pasolini wrote a poem about one of his paintings. When he lined up his paintbrush with his politics, his vision sang with lyrical conviction.

Born in Bagheria, near Palermo, in 1911, Guttuso grew up in a country wracked by violence and poverty, yet his own world was abundant with the natural beauty — landscape, flowers, food — for which Sicily is famous. Later he would say that his “deeper and remote inspiration” was...