Boccioni was born in Reggio di Calabria but left for Rome when he was 18.
There the painter Giacomo Balla taught him the neo-impressionist technique
of divisionism: the dynamic use of elementary colours. In 1910, he met the
spiritual father of futurism, the writer Marinetti. He felt drawn to this
young, revolutionary movement that advocated a positive belief in
permanent innovation. The world was coming to terms with the unique
possibilities offered by the discovery of electricity and the invention of
photographic material. Artist had to participate in this process and not
try to create aesthetic and timeless art in isolation. He had “to express
and glorify modern life, which was continuously and unexpectedly being
transformed by the triumphs of science”. Boccioni soon developed into a
theoretician and leading figure of the futurism movement and wrote
numerous manifestos. In 1915, when Italy became embroiled in the First
World War, the patriotic futurists, including Boccioni, joined the army as
volunteers. They regarded the Italian involvement first and foremost as
the last step towards national unification. Military life did not match
the expectations of the highly motivated Boccioni at all. He wrote to a
friend, “I will leave this kind of life with the greatest contempt for
everything that is not art. …. Compared to art, all other things represent
nothing more than messing around, a rut, patience and memories”. Five days
after writing these words Boccioni died after having fallen from his horse.
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BOC01
h. 17 cm |
Forme uniche della continuità nello
spazio (1913)
In 1912, Boccioni wrote his
‘Manifesto technico della scultura futuristica’. He advocated
experimenting with the simultaneous use of different materials in
dynamic forms, with a focus on the “abstract reconstruction and not
the figurative, form-determining meaning of planes and volumes”. The
bronze figure with the telling title ‘Unique forms of continuity in
space’ reflects his approach to life, as a futurist, which was lively,
dynamic and future-oriented.
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