MILAN – Umberto Boccioni was the greatest exponent of Italian futurism and one of the most brilliant artists on the European scene of those years. His activity as a painter lasted for about ten years. In this period Boccioni manages to cross, and make his own, the major artistic innovations of the period, from Divisionism to Futurism, from Expressionism to Cubism. And he does it with such inspiration as to allow him to produce works of always high quality. He passes through the territories of psychology (notable are his paintings entitled States of mind), even without being a decadent, just as he learns from expressionism the ability to communicate, without reaching the deformistic exasperations of that current. THE BEGINNINGS– Boccioni was born in Reggio Calabria on October 19, 1882, but spent his childhood and adolescence in various cities because his father, a civil servant, was forced to travel frequently. In 1899 Umberto Boccioni moved to Rome where he attended the Free Nude School and worked in the studio of a poster designer. In this period the painter with a realist style met Gino Severini and with him he frequented the studio of Giacomo Balla who is considered a very important master, and Umberto needed it to deepen his research on Divisionist techniques: both would become Balla’s disciples. THE TRAVELS– With the help of both parents he manages to travel abroad: his first destination is Paris (April-August 1906), followed by Russia from which he returns in November of the same year. In April 1907 Umberto enrolled in the Free Nude School of the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Venice. He begins another journey to Russia but interrupts it in Munich, where he visits the museum. On his return he draws, paints actively, while remaining unsatisfied because he feels the limits of Italian culture which he still considers essentially ‘provincial culture’. In the meantime, he faces his first experiences in the field of engraving. IN MILAN, TOWARDS THE FUTURISM– Italy in the early twentieth century still has an artistic life linked to old traditions, but Milan has become a dynamic city, and it is here that Boccioni settles on his return from his last trip to Europe to experiment with various techniques, especially under the influence of divisionism and symbolism. In the autumn of 1907 he then moved to Milan, the city that at that moment more than others is on the rise and responds to his dynamic aspirations. After meeting Marinetti, Boccioni approaches the avant-garde movement and in 1910 he wrote with Carlo Carra and Luigi Russolo, the ‘Manifesto of the Futurist Painters’ and the ‘Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting’, also signed by Severini and Balla. According to the authors, the aim of the modern artist must be to free himself from the models and figurative traditions of the past,THE WAR AND THE LAST YEARS– In 1915 Italy entered the war. Boccioni, interventionist, volunteers together with a group of artists in the National Corps of volunteer cyclists and motorists. During his war commitment he must change his mind regarding the futurist theory enunciated by Marinetti, according to which war is “the only hygiene of the world”. During the war years Umberto Boccioni collaborates with the magazine ‘Avvenimenti’ and gets closer to his old teacher Balla; his very personal style in search of dynamism leads him to approach Expressionism and Cubism in order to put the viewer at the center of the picture to make him feel involved and involved. his very personal style, in search of dynamism, leads him to approach expressionism and cubism in order to put the viewer at the center of the picture to make him feel involved and involved. On 17 August 1916 Umberto Boccioni died in Sorte (Verona), following a trivial fall from a horse, in the midst of his pictorial revolution that led him from Futurism to Plastic Dynamism.17 August 2015
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