Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim and the new Center for Italian Modern Art

Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore), 1913–14. Oil on board, 54.5 x 76.5 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome
Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore), 1913–14. Oil on board, 54.5 x 76.5 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome

2014 looks to be a promising year for the promotion of twentieth-century Italian art in New York City. The February openings of two new Italian Futurist exhibitions shed light on this dynamic and often misunderstood movement in Italian art.

The Guggenheim Museum presents Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe in its iconic rotunda. Organized by Curator Vivien Greene, Italian Futurism is the first of its kind in the United States, and will examine a multitude of artists including the founder of Italian Futurism, F.T. Marinetti. The chronological exhibition will present over 300 works from 1909 until 1944.

The Depero show at the Center for Italian Modern Art, recently opened in SoHo.
The Depero show at the Center for Italian Modern Art, recently opened in SoHo.

Downtown, the new Center for Italian Modern Art launches its gallery and SoHo space with a solo show dedicated to Fortunato Depero, a pioneer of the Futurist art movement. Depero designed the Campari bottle, and produced other creative work for advertising industry of his day. These works will be on view in the US for the first time in 86 years.

Depero's 1932 Campari Soda bottle design, still produced today
Depero’s 1932 Campari Soda bottle design, still produced today

Earlier in the month Futurism: Concepts and Imaginings, an exhibition featuring seven Italian artists from the first (1908-1919) and second (1920s-1930s) waves of Futurism, opened at the Boca Museum of Art in Florida. The drawings, collages, and paintings came from the collection of Commendatore Stefano Acunto and Mrs. Carole Haarmann Acunto. Our previous post on this exhibit can be found here  https://italianacademyfoundation.org/index.php/01/futurism-museum-of-boca-raton/

 

 

-Rose Minutaglio

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