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Umberto Boccioni
Reggio Calabria 1882 - Verona 1916
Futurist avant-garde
born in 1909
can be considered the most important contribution from Italy
to the art of the twentieth century.
Boccioni plays a leading role
within the Movement
fully embodying the spirit
he manages to make pictorially and plastically
the dynamism and speed
representing the new concept of beauty.
The City Rises
1910 1911
Oil on canvas
Cm 199,3
by 301
New York, Museum of Modern Art
After his education in Rome
Boccioni moved to Milan in 1907.
Around 1910 he produced "The city rises".
The painting, anticipated by numerous sketches, was originally called "The work"
and was part of a triptych.
The painting represents a construction site in the outskirts of Milan.
In the foreground
some men attempt to retain the frightened horses;
in the background, from left to right,
we see the electric tramway,
scaffolding for the factory in construction
and smoking chimneys.
The modern metropolis, work and progress
are themes also very appreciated by Futurism.
The rushing horses,
recurring in Boccioni's art, symbolize the vitality of the city
in evolution.
Being the result of mounting operated by the mental vision,
architectures offer dissonant prospects;
The painting shows a search for "a synthesis of what one remembers and
what one sees".
In composition
curved lines dominated
describing the swirling of men and horses.
On the background,
straight lines
project the city upwards
and outside the canvas.
The use of the divisionist technique accentuates the dynamism and energy that
fills the scene;
Boccioni blends together pure colors bright and beautiful
with rapid and filamentous brush strokes.
Speed creates cones of light projecting into the atmosphere.
Unique Forms of Continuity in space (1913)
Bronze
Cm 112 x 40 x 90
Milan, Museo del Novecento.
Unique Forms of Continuity in space dates back to 1913.
With this work the artist removes the celebrating role that the sculpture
covered in the previous century, rejecting the static monumentality.
The sculpture represents a powerful figure without arms
which advances in leaps and bounds. The artist sees in a simultaneous vision the
sequence of moments determined by the advance of man.
The deformation of its limbs
is due to the fact that Boccioni
studies the motion over time;
fourth dimension thus becomes part of the sculpture.
The "trails" taking shape in bronze and accompanying figure, establish in
memory the moments and previous steps:
in this way, the artist
suggests the powerful dynamism of body,
that is constantly changing.
A tangle of curved lines intersecting,
defines plans and volumes that interpenetrate with the surrounding space.
The volumes decomposition and overlap,
Cubist-derived, creates a large effect of mobility.
The light sliding on bronze
highlights the muscles that seem to modeling the strength of
the wind.