Umberto Boccioni

'States of Mind III; Those Who Stay', oil on canvas painting by Umberto Boccioni, 1911

'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space', 1913 bronze by Umberto Boccioni

Umberto Boccioni (October 19, 1882–August 16, 1916) was an Italian painter and sculptor and a member of the Futurist movement. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement (dynamism), speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.

Short biography

Umberto Boccioni studied art through the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, beginning in 1901. He also studied design with a sign painter in Rome. Together with his friend Gino Severini, he became student of Giacomo Balla, a divisionist painter. In 1906, Boccioni studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles in Paris. During later 1906 and early 1907, he shortly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1901, Boccioni first visited the Famiglia Artistica, a society for artists in Milan. After moving there in 1907, he became acquainted with fellow Futurists including the famous poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The two would later join with others in writing manifestos on Futurism.

Boccioni became the main theorist of the artistic movement. He also decided to be a sculptor after he visited various studios in Paris, in 1912, among which those of Braque, Archipenko, Brancusi, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and, probably, Medardo Rosso. While in 1912 he exhibited some paintings together with other Italian futurists at the Bernheim-Jeune, in 1913 he returned to show his sculptures at the Gallerie La Boetie: all related to the elaboration of what Boccioni had seen in Paris, they in their turn probably influenced the cubist sculptors, especially Duchamp-Villon.

In 1914, he published Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico) explaining the esthetics of the group: “ While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus build the table. ” He exhibited in London, together with the group, in 1912 (Sackville Gallery) and 1914 (Doré Gallery): the two exhibitions made a deep impression on the young English artists: some joined then the Vorticism, lead by Wyndham Lewis.

Mobilized in the declaration of war, Boccioni was assigned at an artillery regiment at Sorte, near Verona. On 16 August 1916, Boccioni accidentally was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, aged thirty-three.

Artwork

Boccioni was both a Futurist painter and sculptor. One of Umberto Boccioni's best known paintings is The street enters the house (La Strada Entra Nella Casa) in the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany which featured an exhibition on futurism in 2001. He also worked in collage. Other important Boccioni works include the bronze sculpture, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913) and the painting, The City Rises (1910). His first solo exhibition was held in 1910 at the Galleria Ca' Pesaro in Venice.

Style

Boccioni expressed the overarching beliefs of Futurism in his Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture. Other works that he co-authored include Manifesto of the Futurist Painters and Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting published around 1910.

In 1912, Boccioni shifted to sculpture and published his Manifesto of Futurist Sculpters. All of these writings call for young artists to pursue intensely living, dynamic, and original forms of art. Traditional art techniques and styles were discarded and art critics ignored. Futurists glorified transformations of the world brought on by science.

References

• Guggenheim Collection's Boccioni entry
• Futurism and the Futurists biography and painting gallery