Umberto Boccioni (19 October 1882 – 17 August 1916) was an influential Italian painter and sculptor. He helped shape the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement as one of its principal figures. Despite his short life, his approach to the dynamism of form and the deconstruction of solid mass guided artists long after his death. His works are held by many public art museums, and in 1988 the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a major retrospective of 100 pieces.
Early portraits and landscapes
From 1902 to 1910, Boccioni focused initially on drawings, then sketched and painted portraits - with his mother as a frequent model. He also painted landscapes - often including the arrival of industrialization, trains and factories for example. During this period, he weaves between Pointillism and Impressionism, and the influence of Giacomo Balla, and Divisionism techniques are evident in early paintings (although later largely abandoned). The Morning (1909) was noted for "the bold and youthful violence of hues" and as "a daring exercise in luminosity." His 1910 Three Women, which portrays his mother and sister, and longtime lover Ines at center, was cited as expressing great emotion - strength, melancholy and love.
Development of Futurism
Initially titled Il lavoro (Labor), Boccioni worked for nearly a year on La città sale or The City Rises, 1910, a huge 2m by 3m painting, which is considered his turning point into Futurism. "I attempted a great synthesis of labor, light and movement" he wrote to a friend.[3] Upon its exhibition in Milan in May 1911, the painting attracted numerous reviews, mostly admiring. By 1912 it became a headline painting for the exhibition traveling Europe, the introduction to Futurism. It was sold to the great pianist, Ferruccio Busoni for 4,000 lire that year, and today is frequently on prominent display at the Museum of Modern art in New York, at the very entrance to the paintings department.
La risata (1911, "The Laugh") is considered his first truly Futurist work. He had fully parted with Divisionism, and now focused on the sensations derived from his observation of modern life. Its public reception was quite negative, compared unfavorably with Three Women, and it was defaced by a visitor, running his fingers through the still fresh paint. Subsequent criticism became more positive, with some considering the painting a response to Cubism. It was purchased by Albert Borchardt, a German collector who acquired 20 futurist works exhibited in Berlin, including The Street Enters the House (1911) which depicts a woman on a balcony overlooking a busy street. Today the former also is owned by the Museum of Modern Art, and the latter by the Sprengel Museum in Hanover.
Umberto Boccioni spent much of 1911 working on a trilogy of paintings titled Stati d'animo ("States of Mind"), which he said expressed departure and arrival at a railroad station - The Farewells, Those Who Go, and Those Who Stay. They are cited as defining the vastness and infinite possibility of Futurist painting and sculpture, and liberated from the academic frigidity of Cubism. Critics have acclaimed that he captured a "universal sensation," and today they are considered the summit of the Futurist aesthetic - "The atmosphere is literally shattered." All three paintings were originally purchased by Futurist manifesto poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, until Nelson Rockefeller acquired them from his widow and later donated them to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Beginning in 1912, with Elasticità or Elasticity, depicting the pure energy of a horse, captured with intense chromaticism, he completed a series of "Dynamism" paintings: Dinamismo di un corpo umano ("Human Body"), ciclista ("Cyclist"), Foot-baller, and by 1914 Dinamismo plastico: cavallo + caseggiato ("Plastic Dynamism: Horse + Houses").
While continuing this focus, he revived his previous interest in portraiture. Beginning with L'antigrazioso ("The antigraceful") in 1912 and continuing with I selciatori ("The Street Pavers") and Il bevitore ("The Drinker") both 1914.
In 1914 Boccioni published his book, Pittura, scultura futuriste (Futurist painting and sculpture), which caused a rift between himself and some of his Futurist comrades. As a result perhaps, he abandoned his exploration of dynamism, and instead sought further decomposition of a subject by means of colour.[3] With Horizontal Volumes in 1915 and the Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni in 1916, he completed a full return to figurative painting. Perhaps fittingly, this last painting was a portrait of the Maestro who purchased his first Futurist work, The City Rises.
Andrey,it was delightful for me to see your film. Your well-done intonation, good pronunciation really admired me!
ReplyDelete