Edited and with introduction by Vivien Greene. Text by Walter Adamson, Silvia Barisione, Gabriella Belli, Fabio Benzi, Günter Berghaus, Emily Braun, Marta Braun, Esther da Costa Meyer, Enrico Crispolti, Massimo Duranti, Flavio Fergonzi, Matteo Fochessati, Daniela Fonti, Simonetta Fraquelli, Emilio Gentile, Romy Golan, Vivien Greene, Marina Isgro, Giovanni Lista, Adrian Lyttelton, Lisa Panzera, Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Christine Poggi, Lucia Re, Michelangelo Sabatino, Claudia Salaris, Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Susan Thompson, Patrizia Veroli.
Published to accompany the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe opening at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2014, this catalogue considerably advances the scholarship and understanding of an influential yet little-known twentieth- century artistic movement. As part of the first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism to be presented in the United States, this publication examines the historical sweep of Futurism from its inception with F.T. Marinetti’s manifesto in 1909 through the movement’s demise at the end of World War II. Presenting over 300 works created between 1909 and 1944, by artists, writers, designers and composers such as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Fortunato Depero, Gerardo Dottori, Marinetti, Ivo Pannaggi, Rosa Rosà, Luigi Russolo, Tato and many others, this publication encompasses not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, theater and performance. A wealth of scholarly essays discuss Italian Futurism’s diverse themes and incarnations.
Featured image, Benedetta's "Synthesis of Aerial Communications" (1933-34), is reproduced from Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Art in America
Kenneth E. Silver
'Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe' aims to examine paintings and sculptures that have long been recognized as modernist masterpieces alongside works of architecture, design and pure public spectacle that fueled the dream of a total Futurist art.
W
Charles Curkin
The Italian Futurists saw themselves as soldiers of speed and mechanics, fighting in the name of progress.
The Art Newspaper
Julia Halperin
'Italian Futurism, 1909-44: Reconstructing the Universe' traces the history of the multidisciplinary movement, which celebrated all things fast, robust and mechanical, from its founding manifesto in 1909 to its end after the Second World War.
Artforum
Ara H. Merjian
'Italian Futurism'...provides a refreshingly expanded view of the movement's trajectory.
The New York Review of Books
Jonathan Galassi
An enormous exhibition of the Italian Futurist movement occupies the snail-shell of the Guggenheim Museum this spring and summer. The Futurists were dedicated to motion—but not the meditative pace that Frank Lloyd Wright’s ramp imposes on the viewer; more the revving of a Lamborghini, or better yet a Ducati motorcycle, relentlessly powering up, up, up and away, its engine knocking, spewing exhaust, mowing down everything in its path. The Futurists believed in the machine, in making a great big fuss, in being young. For a brief moment, they were arguably the most influential aesthetic provocateurs in the world.
Time Out New York
Howard Halle
Italian Futurism was one of the most dynamic, controversial and unpredictable movements in early modern art. The artists of Futurism celebrated the revolutionary furor and breakneck technological pace of life in the nascent 20th century, embracing its contradictions and its frequent descents into violence. This expansive overview is the first undertaking of its kind in the United States, and should prove an eyeopener.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
"Today it is the MACHINE that distinguishes our era. Pulleys and flywheels, bolts and smokestacks, all the polished steel and odor of grease (the perfume of ozone from power plants). These are the places that we are irresistibly attracted to. It is no longer nudes, landscapes, figures, symbolisms no matter how Futurist, but the painting of locomotives, the screams of sirens, cogs, pinions and all that mechanical sensation KEEN RESOLUTE which makes up the atmosphere of our sensibility." This excerpt of Ivo Pannaggi and Vinicio Paladini's 1922 manifesto and the featured image, "Numbers in Love" (1920-23), by Giacomo Balla, are reproduced from Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe, published to accompany the epic and unshrinking exhibition currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum. continue to blog
In his 1917 Manifesto of Futurist Dance, F.T. Marinetti described an "anti-harmonic ill-mannered anti-gracious asymmetrical synthetic dynamic free-wordist dance." In the Guggenheim's remarkable current exhibition catalog, Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe, Patrizia Veroli writes, "The Futurists experienced the kinetic problematics of dance as the painters and literati they were, rather than as dancers, thus they tended to consider the performer's body merely a machine for producing certain type of signals on the stage. This is how they entered the world of pantomime, an ancient theatrical genre that had gained a new sense of purpose by the end of the nineteenth century, amid the crisis of other artistic languages. The three war dances Marinetti theorized in his 1917 manifesto are for the most part mimes: the dancer mimics the trajectories of projectiles, sound waves, and the movement of airplanes, explaining her own actions with the signboards typical of the music hall and the silent films of the time." Featured image is of Giannina Censi performing an Aerofuturist Dance in 1931; she drew inspiration from paintings by Enrico Prampolini while Marinetti recited poems on war. These images were later used in Fascist publications presenting examples of strong, healthy female bodies in support of the regime's eugenic goals. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.5 x 11.5 in. / 352 pgs / 338 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 GBP £53.00 ISBN: 9780892074990 PUBLISHER: Guggenheim Museum Publications AVAILABLE: 3/31/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Italian Futurism, 1909-1944 Reconstructing the Universe
Published by Guggenheim Museum Publications. Edited and with introduction by Vivien Greene. Text by Walter Adamson, Silvia Barisione, Gabriella Belli, Fabio Benzi, Günter Berghaus, Emily Braun, Marta Braun, Esther da Costa Meyer, Enrico Crispolti, Massimo Duranti, Flavio Fergonzi, Matteo Fochessati, Daniela Fonti, Simonetta Fraquelli, Emilio Gentile, Romy Golan, Vivien Greene, Marina Isgro, Giovanni Lista, Adrian Lyttelton, Lisa Panzera, Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Christine Poggi, Lucia Re, Michelangelo Sabatino, Claudia Salaris, Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Susan Thompson, Patrizia Veroli.
Published to accompany the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe opening at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2014, this catalogue considerably advances the scholarship and understanding of an influential yet little-known twentieth- century artistic movement. As part of the first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism to be presented in the United States, this publication examines the historical sweep of Futurism from its inception with F.T. Marinetti’s manifesto in 1909 through the movement’s demise at the end of World War II. Presenting over 300 works created between 1909 and 1944, by artists, writers, designers and composers such as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Fortunato Depero, Gerardo Dottori, Marinetti, Ivo Pannaggi, Rosa Rosà, Luigi Russolo, Tato and many others, this publication encompasses not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, theater and performance. A wealth of scholarly essays discuss Italian Futurism’s diverse themes and incarnations.
