Boccioni

Umberto Boccioni

was born in Reggio Calabria in 1882 to parents from Romagna who were in Calabria for work at the time of his birth. Boccioni spent his childhood between the north and south of Italy: Genoa, Padua, Catania are some of the cities that hosted him during his youth and helped feed his hunger for knowledge and travel, which later took him to Paris, Russia, and Germany, where he came into contact with contemporary artistic movements. With his arrival in Milan, where he met the Divisionists and Marinetti, he would later become one of the most prominent exponents of the Futurist movement.

Boccioni's paintings, an example of Futurist exploration, show an interest in contemporaneity, machines, urban life, and current events. Boccioni's paintings are distinguished by a careful study of movement and speed, a search for dynamism that Boccioni himself stated is missing in Cubist paintings, too static. As also happens with other Futurist artists, for example, Fortunato Depero, the investigation and study are not limited to painting but go further: sculpture and literature, in fact, will be two other fields in which Boccioni would test his genius.

Written by Roberta Piana