DEPERO FUTURISTA ROME-PARIS-NEW YORK, 1915-1932 March 11-July 26, 1999 Overview Depero Futurista Rome-Paris-New York, 1915-1932, organized by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy, was the first significant U.S. exhibition to examine the works of the artist Fortunato Depero (1882-1960). It presented an overview of Depero's career from his first encounters with the Futurist movement through his work as a commercial artist in New York City. Like many of the Futurists, Depero, a painter as well as a graphic artist and designer, ignored traditional divisions between the arts and worked in a variety of formats, including painting, sculpture, graphic design, set design, furniture, tapestry, decorative objects, and staged performance pieces. His work, characterized by geometric shapes, bold colors, and mechanistic forms, expressed Futurism's celebration of technology. "Depero achieved the Futurist goal of breaking down the traditional hierarchical divisions between the arts," noted Wolfsonian Curator Marianne Lamonaca. "He produced an extraordinary breadth of vivacious and bold work." The Futurists, led by Italian poet Filippo Tommasso Marinetti, burst onto the international cultural scene in 1909 with a radical call for an artistic idiom to celebrate the speed, machines, materials, noise, and even violence of the industrial age. More than an idolization of technology, Futurism also incorporated passionate patriotism into its ideology. The movement's leaders were determined to propel an industrially underdeveloped Italy into the twentieth century with their mechanically inspired works. Depero made his first official contribution to the Futurist movement in 1915, when he co-authored the manifesto Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe with the artist Giacomo Balla. The document was hailed as an ideological "second wind" for Futurism. At once playful and full of wartime machismo, it called for a vital interaction between man and machine-oriented art forms. Depero Futurista Rome-Paris-New York, 1915-1932 provided a chronological exploration of Depero's work, beginning with his Plastic Complexes of 1915, conceived as a visual counterpart to his manifesto. Putting his training in the applied arts to use, Depero's designs for sculptural "machines" were intended to incorporate a variety of materials, such as metal, tissue, colored glass, celluloid, liquids, and springs, as well as sounds. Though never translated into actual three-dimensional objects, Depero's note-covered studies for these projects are invaluable clues to his vision of a dynamic "reconstructed universe." In 1919, Depero founded the Casa d'Arte (House of Art), a small craft business that functioned as a laboratory and studio for his ideas. There he produced wall hangings, cushions, furniture, and toys, and experimented with avant-garde theater design, marionette construction, and advertising art and design. Stylized automatons, mannequins, and puppets in animal, human, or vegetal form populated his world of dynamic motion and saturated color, made possible by the advent of modern transportation and machine technology. His commercial activities included advertising campaigns for Campari and interior design schemes for hotels and restaurants. He participated in many important international fairs including the Monza Biennale and the 1925 Paris World's Fair. Moreover, Depero was the only Futurist to experience the dizzying sights and sounds of New York City, what he called "the quintessential Machine Age city." In 1928, Depero embarked on a trip to the United States with the intention of further exploring the "industrialization of art." Working mostly as a graphic designer, he received commissions from magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, designed theater sets and interiors, and opened Depero's Futurist House in New York City, a studio for the production of Futurist creations. Despite his enthusiasm, his trip was not a commercial success, and lasted only until 1930. Subsequently, Depero turned increasingly to writing and painting; beginning in 1931, he also began to produce Dinamo, a monthly Futurist art magazine. The exhibition, curated by Dr. Gabriella Belli of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Trento and Rovereto, comprised more than 100 works by Depero. The book DeperoFuturista:Rome-Paris-New York, 1915-1932 and more, written by Gabriela Belli and published by Skira, is available in the Wolfsonian museum shop (194 pages, $60). This exhibition was sponsored by Alessi, Continental Airlines, Alitalia, Caffe Milano, Dacra Companies and Miami Design District, the Italian government, Luminaire, Northern Trust Bank, Ocean Drive magazine, Roots Canada, Senzatempo, and Snaidero Kitchen. Back to Past Exhibitions Main