Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe

Guggenheim Museum Presents Unprecedented Survey of
Italian Futurism Opening in February
First Comprehensive Overview of the Influential Movement to Be Shown in the U.S.
Featuring Over 360 Works, Including Several Never Before Seen Outside of Italy
Exhibition:
Venue:
Location:
Dates:
Media Preview:
Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York
Full rotunda and ramps, High Gallery, Annex Levels 5 and 7
February 21–September 1, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 10 am–1 pm
(NEW YORK, NY – January 16, 2014) — From February 21 through September 1, 2014, the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum presents Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe, the first
comprehensive overview in the United States of one of Europe’s most important 20th-century avantgarde movements. Featuring over 360 works by more than 80 artists, architects, designers,
photographers, and writers, this multidisciplinary exhibition examines the full historical breadth of
Futurism, from its 1909 inception with the publication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s first Futurist
manifesto through its demise at the end of World War II. The exhibition includes many rarely seen
works, some of which have never traveled outside of Italy. It encompasses not only painting and
sculpture, but also the advertising, architecture, ceramics, design, fashion, film, free-form poetry,
photography, performance, publications, music, and theater of this dynamic and often contentious
movement that championed modernity and insurgency.
The exhibition is organized by Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. An international advisory committee composed of eminent
scholars from many disciplines provided expertise and guidance in the preparation of this thorough
exploration of the Futurist movement, a major modernist expression that in many ways remains little
known among American audiences.
This exhibition is made possible by Lavazza.
Support is provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the David Berg Foundation,
with additional funding from the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, The Robert Lehman
Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Leadership Committee for Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe is also
gratefully acknowledged for its generosity, including the Hansjörg Wyss Charitable Endowment;
Stefano and Carole Acunto; Giancarla and Luciano Berti; Ginevra Caltagirone; Massimo and Sonia
Cirulli Archive; Daniela Memmo d’Amelio; Achim Moeller, Moeller Fine Art; Pellegrini Legacy
Trust; and Alberto and Gioietta Vitale.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
About Futurism
Futurism was launched in 1909 against a background of growing economic and social upheaval. In
Marinetti’s “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” published in Le Figaro, he outlined the
movement’s key aims, among them: to abolish the past, to champion modernization, and to extol
aggression. Although it began as a literary movement, Futurism soon embraced the visual arts as well as
advertising, fashion, music and theater, and it spread throughout Italy and beyond. The Futurists
rejected stasis and tradition and drew inspiration from the emerging industry, machinery, and speed of
the modern metropolis. The first generation of artists created works characterized by dynamic
movement and fractured forms, aspiring to break with existing notions of space and time to place the
viewer at the center of the artwork. Extending into many mediums, Futurism was intended to be not just
an artistic idiom but an entirely new way of life. Central to the movement was the concept of the opera
d’arte totale or “total work of art,” in which the viewer is surrounded by a completely Futurist
environment.
More than two thousand individuals were associated with the movement over its duration. In addition to
Marinetti, central figures include: artists Giacomo Balla, Benedetta (Benedetta Cappa Marinetti),
Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Fortunato Depero, and Enrico Prampolini; poets and writers Francesco
Cangiullo and Rosa Rosà; architect Antonio Sant’Elia; composer Luigi Russolo; photographers Anton
Giulio Bragaglia and Tato (Guglielmo Sansoni); dancer Giannina Censi; and ceramicist Tullio
d’Albisola. These figures and other lesser-known ones are represented in the exhibition.
Futurism is commonly understood to have had two phases: “heroic” Futurism, which lasted until around
1916, and a later incarnation that arose after World War I and remained active until the early 1940s.
Investigations of “heroic” Futurism have predominated and comparatively few exhibitions have explored
the subsequent life of the movement; until now, a comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism had yet
to be presented in the U.S. Italian art of the 1920s and ’30s is little known outside of its home country,
due in part to a taint from Futurism’s sometime association with Fascism. This association complicates
the narrative of this avant-garde and makes it all the more necessary to delve into and clarify its full
history.
Exhibition Overview
Italian Futurism unfolds chronologically, juxtaposing works in different mediums as it traces the myriad
artistic languages the Futurists employed as their practice evolved over a 35-year period. The exhibition
begins with an exploration of the manifesto as an art form, and proceeds to the Futurists’ catalytic
encounter with Cubism in 1911, their exploration of near-abstract compositions, and their early efforts in
photography. Ascending the rotunda levels of the museum, visitors follow the movement’s progression
as it expanded to include architecture, clothing, design, dinnerware, experimental poetry, and toys.
Along the way, it gained new practitioners and underwent several stylistic evolutions—shifting from the
fractured spaces of the 1910s to the machine aesthetics (or arte meccanica) of the ’20s, and then to the
softer, lyrical forms of the ’30s. Aviation’s popularity and nationalist significance in 1930s Italy led to the
swirling, often abstracted, aerial imagery of Futurism’s final incarnation, aeropittura. This novel painting
approach united the Futurist interest in nationalism, speed, technology, and war with new and dizzying
visual perspectives. The fascination with the aerial spread to other mediums, including ceramics, dance,
and experimental aerial photography.
The exhibition is enlivened by three films commissioned from documentary filmmaker Jen Sachs, which
use archival film footage, documentary photographs, printed matter, writings, recorded declamations,
and musical compositions to represent the Futurists’ more ephemeral work and to bring to life their
words-in-freedom poems. One film addresses the Futurists’ evening performances and events, called
serate, which merged “high” and “low” culture in radical ways and broke down barriers between
spectator and performer. Mise-en-scène installations evoke the Futurists’ opera d’arte totale interior
ensembles, from those executed for the private sphere to those realized under Fascism.
Italian Futurism concludes with the five monumental canvases that compose the Syntheses of
Communications (1933–34) by Benedetta (Benedetta Cappa Marinetti), which are being shown for the
first time outside of their original location. One of few public commissions awarded to a Futurist in the
1930s, the series of paintings was created for the Palazzo delle Poste (Post Office) in Palermo, Sicily.
The paintings celebrate multiple modes of communication, many enabled by technological innovations,
and correspond with the themes of modernity and the “total work of art” concept that underpinned the
Futurist ethos.
Exhibition Catalogue
A fully illustrated, 352-page catalogue accompanies Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the
Universe. Featuring the work of nearly thirty scholars, it offers an important contribution to the
understanding of this major avant-garde movement of the 20th century. Edited by exhibition curator
Vivien Greene, the book begins with three introductory essays: an overview of Futurism, an analysis of
its historiography, and an investigation of its social and political context. It is then structured like a
microhistory, with short texts focusing on specific artists, series, and moments to present a selection of
Futurism’s many facets. A hardcover edition priced at $60 and a softcover edition priced at $40 will be
available at the museum shop and online at guggenheimstore.org, and distributed in the United States
through ARTBOOK | D.A.P.
Education and Public Programs
Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe is accompanied by a range of public programs,
including a series of lectures by Futurist scholars, a gallery program, film screenings, and performances
by Luciano Chessa and Daniele Lombardi. For complete information about the programs presented in
conjunction with the exhibition, please visit guggenheim.org/calendar.
Futurism Lecture Series
In this lively series, distinguished scholars present current research on a range of significant themes,
artists, and disciplines within Italian Futurism including: the art and theories of Tactilism; machine
aesthetics; and World War I and female Futurist writers and artists. An exhibition viewing follows each
program. $12, $8 members, free for students with RSVP.
“Touch without Sight: Futurist Tattilismo”
Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 pm
Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of
New York (CUNY)
“Ivo Pannaggi, Arte Meccanica, and the International Avant-Garde”
Wednesday, May 7, 6:30 pm
Christine Poggi, Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
“War, Women, and Sexuality in the Futurist Avant-Garde”
Tuesday, May 20, 6:30 pm
Lucia Re, Professor of Italian and Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Curator’s Eye Tours
Fridays, 2 pm
Free with museum admission
March 21: Natalia Lauricella
April 4: Vivien Greene*
May 16: Natalia Lauricella*
June 27: Susan Thompson
July 18: Vivien Greene
August 22: Susan Thompson
*Tour interpreted in American Sign Language
Mind’s Eye Programs
Mondays, March 3, April 7, 6:30 pm
Wednesdays, March 12, April 9, 2 pm
For visitors who are blind or have low vision, tours and workshops focused on Italian Futurism, 1909–
1944: Reconstructing the Universe are presented through Verbal Description, touch, and sound. Free
with RSVP. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/mindseye.
About Lavazza
Lavazza prides itself on being Italy’s leading coffee brand and manufacturer. The company, founded in
1895, has been led by the Lavazza family for over a century of business, and currently operates in more
than ninety countries. Looking to the future, Lavazza seeks to make a second home in the United States
and expand its presence across the globe. With a long history of support for the arts, including
Renaissance art, photography, design, and music, Lavazza now joins the Guggenheim’s efforts to
promote greater understanding of Futurism. Through its sponsorship of the exhibition Italian Futurism,
1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe, Lavazza supports an art movement vital to its home country of
Italy while also reaching an international audience.
About the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the
understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through
exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that
began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy
Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
(opened 1997) and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). Looking to the future, the
Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that take contemporary art,
architecture, and design beyond the walls of the museum. More information about the foundation can
be found at guggenheim.org.
VISITOR INFORMATION
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the Guggenheim’s permanent collection, and information about the museum’s landmark building.
Verbal Imaging guides for select exhibitions are also included for visitors who are blind or have low
vision. The Guggenheim app is sponsored by Bloomberg.
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#1329
January 16, 2014
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT
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Keri Murawski, Senior Publicist
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
212 423 3840
[email protected]
EXHIBITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
Walter L. Adamson
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Intellectual History,
Emory University, Atlanta
Giovanni Lista
Directeur de Recherche,
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Silvia Barisione
Curator, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University,
Miami Beach
Adrian Lyttelton
Senior Adjunct Professor of European Studies,
Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies Bologna Center
Gabriella Belli
Direttore, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia; Storica dell’arte
Laura Mattioli
Storica dell’arte
Dr. Günter Berghaus
Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol
Lisa Panzera
Senior Director, McCaffrey Fine Art, New York
Emily Braun
Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and The Graduate
Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Marta Braun
Director, Graduate Program in Photographic Preservation
and Collections Management, Ryerson University, Toronto
Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli
Soprintendente, Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna
e contemporanea, Rome
Collection of Renzo Arbore, Rome
Libreria Antiquaria Pontremoli, Milan
Archivi Gerardo Dottori, Perugia
Collection of Luce Marinetti, Rome
Archivio Galleria Campari, Milan
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Merrill C. Berman Collection
Collection C. L. M. Seeber Michahelles, Rome
Biagiotti Cigna Foundation, Guidonia, Italy
Moeller Fine Art, New York – Berlin
Casa Cavazzini, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea,
Udine, Italy
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York
Eugenia Paulicelli
Professor of Italian, Comparative Literature,
and Women’s Studies, Queens College and The Graduate
Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Centre Pompidou, Paris,
Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle
Maria Antonella Pelizzari
Professor of Art History, Hunter College and The Graduate
Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Civico Gabinetto dei Disegni–Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Christine Poggi
Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
Ester Coen
Professore di Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea,
Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
We are especially grateful for the exceptional collaboration
of MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy,
and Poste Italiane.
Marina Pugliese
Direttore, Museo del Novecento, Milan
Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare, Rome
Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Estorick Collection, London
Anna Maria Ruta
Storica dell’arte
Flavio Fergonzi
Professore di Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea,
Università di Udine, Italy
Michelangelo Sabatino, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Gerald D. Hines College of
Architecture, University of Houston
Daniela Fonti
Professore di Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea,
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
Claudia Salaris
Storica delle avanguardie
Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Rome
8
Museo del Novecento, Milan
Corkin Gallery, Toronto
Massimo Duranti
Critico d’arte; Presidente, Archivi Gerardo Dottori, Perugia
Emilio Gentile
Professore emerito,
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
Museo Civico di Cuneo, Italy
Comune di Perugia, Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna
Lucia Re
Professor of Italian and Gender Studies,
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Jeffrey T. Schnapp
Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures;
Faculty Director, metaLAB (at) Harvard;
Faculty Codirector, Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Musée de Grenoble, France
Massimo and Sonia Cirulli Archive, New York
Enrico Crispolti
Professore emerito di Storia dell’Arte Contemporanea;
Direttore della Scuola di Specializzazione in Storia dell’Arte,
Università degli Studi di Siena
Simonetta Fraquelli
Independent Curator
Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris
Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna
Fondazione Carima–Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy
Pinacoteca Civica di Como, Italy
Fondazione Echaurren Salaris, Rome
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Fonds Alberto Sartoris, Archives de la construction moderne–
Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Touring Club Italiano Archive, Milan
Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Università di Pisa
Ventura Collection, Rome
Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma Capitale
Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy
The Wolfsonian–Florida International University,
Miami Beach
GAM, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin
Wolfsoniana–Fondazione regionale per la Cultura
e lo Spettacolo, Genoa
The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Collection of Giorgio Grillo, Florence
Private collection, Foligno, Italy
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Private collection, Rome
Isisuf, Istituto Internazionale di Studi sul Futurismo, Milan
Private collection, Switerzland
Collection Leoni, Erba, Italy
Private collectors who wish to remain anonymous
9
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Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the
Universe
February 21–September 1, 2014
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
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Giacomo Balla
The Hand of the Violinist (The Rhythms of the Bow) (La mano del violinista
[I ritmi dell’archetto]), 1912
Oil on canvas, 56 x 78.3 cm
Estorick Collection, London
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
1 | Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Umberto Boccioni
Elasticity (Elasticità), 1912
Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Museo del Novecento, Milan
© Museo del Novecento, Comune di Milano (all legal rights reserved)
Photo: Luca Carrà
Umberto Boccioni
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (Forme uniche della continuità nello
spazio), 1913 (cast 1949)
Bronze, 121.3 x 88.9 x 40 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Lydia Winston
Malbin, 1989
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image Source: Art Resource, New York
Giacomo Balla
Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore), 1913–14
Oil on unvarnished millboard in artist’s painted frame, 54.5 x 76.5 cm
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim
Collection, Venice 76.2553.31
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Luigi Russolo
“The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto” (“L’arte dei rumori: Manifesto
futurista”)
Leaflet (Milan: Direzione del Movimento Futurista, 1913), 29.2 x 23 cm
Wolfsoniana - Fondazione regionale per la Cultura e lo Spettacolo, Genoa
By permission of heirs of the artist
Photo: Courtesy Wolfsoniana - Fondazione regionale per la Cultura e lo
Spettacolo, Genoa
Carlo Carrà
Interventionist Demonstration (Manifestazione Interventista), 1914
Tempera, pen, mica powder, paper glued on cardboard, 38.5 x 30 cm
Gianni Mattioli Collection, on long-term loan to the Peggy Guggenheim
Collection, Venice
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
2 | Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Francesco Cangiullo
Large Crowd in the Piazza del Popolo (Grande folla in Piazza del Popolo),
1914
Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 58 x 74 cm
Private collection
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Ivo Pannaggi
Speeding Train (Treno in corsa), 1922
Oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm
Fondazione Carima–Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy
Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Cassa di risparmio della Provincia di
Macerata
Fortunato Depero
Heart Eaters (Mangiatori di cuori), 1923
Painted wood, 36.5 x 23 x 10 cm
Private collection
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: Vittorio Calore
Fortunato Depero
Little Black and White Devils, Dance of Devils (Diavoletti neri e bianchi, Danza
di diavoli), 1922–23
Pieced wool on cotton backing, 184 x 181 cm
MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: © MART, Archivio fotografico
3 | Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Enrico Prampolini and Maria Ricotti, with cover by Enrico Prampolini
Program for the Theater of Futurist Pantomime (Théâtre de la Pantomine
Futuriste)
Illustrated leaflet (Paris: M. et J. De Brunn, 1927), 27.5 x 22.7 cm
Fonds Alberto Sartoris, Archives de la Construction Moderne–Ecole
polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
By permission of heirs of the artist
Photo: Jean-Daniel Chavan
Bruno Munari and Torido Mazzotti
Antipasti Service (Piatti Servizio Antipasti), 1929–1930
Glazed earthenware (manufactured by Casa Giuseppe Mazzotti, Albisola
Marina), six plates: 21.6 cm diameter each; one vase: 11.7 × 7.6 cm
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami Beach, The Mitchell
Wolfson, Jr. Collection
© Bruno Munari, courtesy Corraini Edizioni
Photo: Lynton Gardiner
Filippo Masoero
Descending over Saint Peter (Scendendo su San Pietro), ca. 1927–37 (possibly
1930–33)
Gelatin silver print, 24 x 31.5 cm
Touring Club Italiano Archive
Mino Somenzi, ed., with words-in-freedom image Airplanes (Aeroplani) by
Pino Masnata
Futurismo 2, no. 32 (Apr. 16, 1933)
Journal (Rome, 1933), 64 x 44 cm
Fonds Alberto Sartoris, Archives de la Construction Moderne–Ecole
polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Photo: Jean-Daniel Chavan
4 | Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Gerardo Dottori
Cimino Home Dining Room Set (Sala da pranzo di casa Cimino), early
1930s
Table, chairs, buffet, lamp, and sideboard; wood, glass, crystal, copper with
chrome plating, leather, dimensions variable
Private collection
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: Daniele Paparelli, Courtesy Archivi Gerardo Dottori, Perugia, Italy
Tullio Crali
Before the Parachute Opens (Prima che si apra il paracadute), 1939
Oil on panel, 141 x 151 cm
Casa Cavazzini, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Udine, Italy
© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Photo: Claudio Marcon, Udine, Civici Musei e Gallerie di Storia e Arte
5 | Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe
Benedetta (Cappa Marinetti)
Synthesis of Aerial Communications (Sintesi delle comunicazioni aeree),
1933–34
Tempera and encaustic on canvas, 324.5 x 199 cm
Il Palazzo delle Poste di Palermo, Sicily, Poste Italiane
© Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, used by permission of Vittoria Marinetti and
Luce Marinetti’s heirs
Photo: AGR/Riccardi/Paoloni

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