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Umberto Boccioni

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Umberto Boccioni
Artist's Name: Umberto Boccioni
Preferred medium: painting
birth year: 1882
Nationality: IT
City: Verona

Umberto Boccioni - Profile

Umberto Boccioni (19 October 1882 - 17 August 1916) was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement (dynamism), speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy. A native of Reggio Calabria, Boccioni studied art through the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, beginning in 1901. He also studied design with a sign painter in Rome. Together with his friend Gino Severini, he became a student of Giacomo Balla, a divisionist painter. In 1906, Boccioni studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles in Paris. During the late 1906 and early 1907, he shortly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1901, Boccioni first visited the Famiglia Artistica, a society for artists in Milan. After moving there in 1907, he became acquainted with fellow Futurists, including the famous poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The two would later join with others in writing manifestos on futurism. Boccioni became the main theorist of the artistic movement. He also decided to be a sculptor after he visited various studios in Paris, in 1912, among which those of Braque, Archipenko, Brancusi, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and, probably, Medardo Rosso. While in 1912 he exhibited some paintings together with other Italian futurists at the Bernheim-Jeun, in 1913 he returned to show his sculptures at the Gallerie La Boetie: all related to the elaboration of what Boccioni had seen in Paris, they in their turn probably influenced the cubist sculptors, especially Duchamp-Villon. In 1914, he published Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico) explaining the aesthetics of the group: "While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus build the table." He exhibited in London, together with the group, in 1912 (Sackville Gallery) and 1914 (Doré Gallery): the two exhibitions made a deep impression on the young English artists: some joined then the Vorticism, led by Wyndham Lewis. Mobilized in the declaration of war, Boccioni was assigned at an artillery regiment at Sorte, near Verona. On 16 August 1916, Boccioni was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, age thirty-four. (Wikipedia)

important exhibitions from Umberto Boccioni

Exhibition Location City Country Date
46. Biennale Venedig 1995 Biennale Venedig Venedig IT 12.06.1995
Lissitzky+ Part 1: Victory over the Sun Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven NL 19.09.2009
Futurism Tate Modern London GB 12.06.2009
ESCULTURA AVENTURA Arte que (quase) se move Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo São Paulo BR 05.07.2011
Sprache des Futurismus Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin DE 02.10.2009
Transforming Chronologies: An Atlas of Drawings, Part One MoMA - Museum of Modern Art New York US 26.01.2006
Die Kunst der Entschleunigung. Bewegung und Ruhe in der modernen Kunst Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg Wolfsburg DE 05.11.2011
traces du sacré Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne Paris FR 07.05.2008
Rivoluzione! Kunsthaus Zürich Zürich CH 26.09.2008
Das MoMA in Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin Berlin DE 20.02.2004

artist's website


external Link to the website of the artist or his gallery/institution:
Umberto Boccioni

Galleries representing
Umberto Boccioni:

Galleria dello Scudo

Collections representing
Umberto Boccioni

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
GAMeC - Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
Kunsthalle Mannheim
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
MAMbo Bologna
MART - Museo Trento e Rovereto
Metropolitan Museum
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo
PAC - Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Sprengel Museum Hannover
Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Tate St. Ives
Von der Heydt Museum