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What's in an 'Ism'?
Futurism, a comparatively short-lived movement, originated in Milan between 1910 and 1912. Far less acclaimed than Cubism, it has sometimes been regarded as merely one of its offshoots. A current exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum goes some distance to rectify this misconception. This is a welcome contribution in light of the fact that Cubism took its name from the demeaning words of a critic, while Italian artists, following the lead of the writer F.T. Marinetti, proudly proclaimed their new Futurist allegiance in a 1910 manifesto. Cubism, while avowedly revolutionary in nature, was primarily about art—but Futurism celebrated life, embracing music, theater, literature, and even politics. Unfortunately, most of the Futurists envisioned war as a progressive force that would cleanse the earth and offer a rebirth for humanity. Ironically, leading Futurist painter Boccioni himself was destined to die at the age of 34 in World War I.
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| Umberto Boccioni, The Story of a Seamstress (Romanzo di una cucitrice>, 1908, oil on canvas, Barilla Collection of Modern Art, Parma, Italy. (Photo courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) |
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The painters Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), Carlo Carrà (1881-1966), and Gino Severini (1883-1966) formed the core of the Italian movement. But the curators of this exhibition chose not to attempt an overview of Futurism, or a monographic study of Boccioni. Instead, they positioned Boccioni's large portrait of his mother (Materia, 1912), an oil painting measuring 89 by 59 inches, in the center of the Guggenheim's focused show. Surrounding it with Cubist masterpieces by Picasso and Braque, they empower the viewer to observe at once both the strong influences and the differences between the two movements. We see clearly how Boccioni learned from Picasso's and Braque's revolutionary new perspective, including the fragmenting of surface into planes. However, the Italian's use of deep space and his muscular, vibrant paint handling contrasts with the flatness and controlled, methodical brushstroke Braque used in Woman Reading (1911), for example. The Cubists' intent was to present a new reading of art as reality in itself, as flat surface, but the Futurists tried to simultaneously bring in aspects of the external world. Materia demonstrates this perfectly, as the artist portrays his mother seated amidst the intrusion of street action, with a horse trotting by on the left and a man striding to the right; aspects of Milan's architecture and noise reverberate around her. While Cubism is contained, Futurism purposely reaches out and brings the outside in. Boccioni's mother's strong hands dominate the middle of the painting, with rays of light radiating out (or in); her head is nearly hidden towards the top. It's almost as if this strong woman "holds the whole world in her hands."
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| Umberto Boccioni, Head + House + Light (Testa + casa + luce), 1913, charcoal and watercolor on paper, Civiche Raccolte d'Arte, Gabinetto dei Disegni, Milan, courtesy of Comune di Milano. (Photo courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) |
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Leading up to the centerpiece of Materia, we are treated to earlier paintings Boccioni made using a Divisionist technique (a term actually preferred over Pointillism by Seurat), characterized by brilliant colors, and influenced by his older contemporary, Balla (whose huge 1901 portrait of his own mother is also included). The younger artist's Story of a Seamstress (1908), Controluce (1909), and Sister on the Balcony (1909) are among the exquisite paintings, which he himself equated with polyphonic music. The shimmering skeins of parallel brushstrokes somehow imply movement, vibrations of light, almost simulating sound waves. This technique, superficially resembling that of the late 19th-century French neo-Impressionists Seurat and Signac, serves a quite different purpose in the hands of the Italian painters. In fact, the comparison between these earlier movements is analogous to the one between Cubism and Futurism; the French intent is to analyze and freeze movement, while the Italians try to convey physical action and symbolism.In addition to these fascinating investigations of relationships between Cubism and Futurism (and Boccioni's personal evolution from Divisionism to Futurism), the exhibition also examines the relationship between Boccioni's painting and sculpture.
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| Pablo Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910, oil on canvas, the Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman in memory of Charles B. Goodspeed. (Photo courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) |
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I have always felt that Picasso's bronze sculpture of a head of a woman from 1909 helps explicate the flat cubism of his paintings, such as Woman With Pears of the same year. In both, the viewer experiences a kind of double-take reaction. The three-dimensional sculpture contradicts itself, instead stressing two-dimensionality by means of flat, sharp planes and angles defining the face and hair, just as the painting does. We do not often get to see the two works together, since the sculpture is in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the painting is in New York City's Museum of Modern Art. But both are present in this exhibition. Similarly, Boccioni's bronze Development of a Bottle in Space (1912-13) and his Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913), accompanied by many drawings and studies, promote understanding of the artist's quest for motion and dynamism. For both Picasso and Boccioni, abstract shape trumps representational form. Art for Picasso is the surface itself, but for the Italian, deep thrusts, angles, and dynamic turns predominate.Analogous figurative works in the exhibition include Duchamp's infamous Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), of 1912 and Fernand Leger's Nude Model in the Studio (1912-13). Both of these paintings highlight machine-like, fragmented, robotic forms in motion. It is easy to see why they aroused controversy in their day. What they all have in common is the destruction of the human form, as we humans had known it, and a new depersonalization, perhaps presaging the World War. Paradoxically, however, all these works exude a kind of optimism, even exuberance, in their celebration of newness, energy, and brashness.
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| Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (Nu descendant un escalier [no. 2]), 1912, oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. (Photo courtesy of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) |
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The comparison between Cubism and Futurism holds up in the category of landscape painting as well. Delaunay's Eiffel Tower and The City, both of 1911, relate to Picasso's Old Mill (1909) or Landscape at Céret (1911), in much the same fashion as Boccioni's figures correlate to Picasso's. Delaunay, more in the Futurist camp (although French, and termed an Orphist), uses more color and emphasizes movement. (Interestingly, Delaunay, like Boccioni, likens his painting to music.) Smaller Boccioni paintings, such as The Street Enters the House and Simultaneous Visions, both from 1911, bring figure and landscape together with dynamic motion and confusion—as if the viewer were at the center of a maelstrom.This easily graspable, small exhibition at the Guggenheim elucidates a difficult subject. By showing us how to look at certain Futurist paintings, it helps us to understand the basis of Futurism, as well as how Futurism developed from French Divisionist and Cubist origins. By studying the works in this show, we can begin to anticipate how Futurism would achieve its stated goal of incorporating motion and, striding towards the future, pave the way for cinema to follow."Boccioni's Materia: A Futurist Masterpiece and the Avant-Garde in Milan and Paris" is on view through May 9. The Guggenheim Museum is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street) and is open Saturday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m., and Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. The museum is closed on Thursday.Art historian Greta Berman has been on the liberal arts faculty since 1979.
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