Futurismo

Curated by Didier Ottinger Commissioner for the Italian venue Ester Coen

On 20th February, one hundred years after publication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's impassioned and overwhelming Futurism Manifesto, the exhibition Futurismo. Avanguardia-Avanguardie (Futurism. Avant-garde-Avant-gardes) opens at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome.

Curated in collaboration with the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Modern in London, the exhibition reaffirms the leading role of Futurism in the complex design of the artistic lexicon of the early avant-gardes. It will be set up first in Paris (October 2008 - January 2009), then in Rome and lastly in London (June - September 2009). To underline the collaboration between the three prestigious institutions, each venue has shaped the mutual initial project from its own viewpoint, highlighting the fundamental and shared idea of renewal and tension towards the future which Futurism signified.

In particular the Rome venue, though maintaining the outline of the initial French project aimed at reconstructing the celebrated 1912 futurist exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris, shifts the accent to the extraordinary interweave of correspondences and oppositions, analogies and contrasts, affinities and dissonances which, at the beginning of the last century, marked what still appears today as one of the most interesting and extended debates of modernity. In an itinerary that is moving and exceptional due to the rarity of the works on loan from the main international museums and collections, the show will include the most important futurist masterpieces, together with key works by great 20th century masters such as Boccioni, Carrà, Severini, Balla, Picasso, Duchamp, Braque, Léger, the Delaunays, Larionov, Gonèarova, Kupka, Russolo, Villon, Del Marle, Epstein, Gleizes, Popova, Soffici, Malevi, Ekster, Bomberg, Picabia, Metzinger and Macdonald-Wright...

At the Scuderie del Quirinale, for the first time, the exhibition itinerary sets in parallel the stylistic and philosophic contributions made by Futurism and Cubism to the birth of Russian Cubo-Futurism, English Vorticism and American Synchromism, underscoring the basic contribution of the Italian avant-garde with Marinetti's ingenious insight concerning a new synthesis of space and time. The futurist movement, celebrated in its essence, in fact remains a primitive thrust capable of attracting and seducing entire contemporary generations with the vital impulse that filters from its seductive multicolour visions, fragmented in the explosion of an inextinguishable propagating energy.

The originality and innovative power of those avant-gardes are still with us today, intact and alive after one hundred years, and at the Scuderie del Quirinale the public has the chance to experience the emotion of an unrepeatable encounter with very famous works which in their day were considered a total violation but have now become great ‘classics' of the international 20th century. Works not to be missed such as Umberto Boccioni's La Risata and I funerali dell'anarchico Galli from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Le grand nu by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso's La femme assise dans un fauteuil from the Centre Pompidou, La stazione di Milano by Carlo Carrà and Le voci della mia stanza by Gino Severini from the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, and from the Munich Picture Gallery Umberto Boccioni's Volumi orizzontali, side by side with unusual and rare works from more than 30 international museums and collections: an opportunity to get to know, appreciate, relive and think over a great turning point in our art history.

An extensive catalogue published by 5 Continents Editions/Centre Pompidou enriches the exhibition with essays and documents.

Futurism. Futurismo. Le Futurisme
Avanguardia Avanguardie
Kurator in Rom: Ester Coen

Künstler: Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, David Bomberg, Georges Braque, Carlo Carrà, Sonia Delaunay, Robert Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacob Epstein, Alexandra Exter, Albert Gleizes, Natalija Gontscharowa, Ivan Kliun, Frantisek Kupka, Mikhail Larionov, Fernand Léger, Wyndham Lewis, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Kasimir Malewitsch, Felix Del Marle, Jean Metzinger, Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, Francis Picabia, Ljubow Popowa, Luigi Russolo, Pablo Picasso, Gino Severini, Ardengo Soffici, Jacques Villon ...

Stationen Futurismus:
15.10.08 - 26.01.09 Centre Pompidou, Paris
20.02.09 - 24.05.09 Scuderie del Quirinale, Rom
12.06.09 - 20.09.09 Tate Modern, London