Was There a Futurist Dance?

Amidst other movements of the historical Avant-garde, Futurism’s legacy was established in great measure by its acts of performance involving the live, physical engagement of an audience. But what does the term ‘dance’ mean when used in reference to a distinct component or idea within Futurist performance? Futurist…

Introduction

Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero published two versions of his autobiography: Fortunato Depero nelle opere e nella vita (Fortunato Depero in His Works and Life) was released in Italian in 1940; a revised version – which was substantially changed in content and structure – was published in English in 1947 as…

Today, Fortunato Depero is unanimously regarded as a key figure in the artistic scene of twentieth-century Italy. Over the past decades, many studies have shed light on his strengths: his original and autonomous reading of Futurism, his sojourn in New York at a time when Paris was still the preferred…

Fortunato Depero arrived in Rome in December 1913 (figure 1). He was twenty-one years old, penniless, and had been attracted to the capital by the news circulating in his hometown Rovereto about the Futurist renewal of Italian culture. A few months earlier, he had established contacts with the Lacerba group…

This short paper investigates Fortunato Depero’s contribution to Italian modernist painting in 1919, the crucial year after the end of World War I when Italian avant-garde artists recognized a need to confront international modern art, as well as the Italian historical tradition, anew. The first part compares the coeval drawings…