Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim -- Way Too Much Stuff

Saturday afternoon we went to the Guggenheim Museum to see 'Italian Futurisum, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe'. 

'Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe', Guggenheim Museum,
photo by McClure

This exhibition occupies the entire ramp and a few side galleries as well.  It is generally organized chronologically from the Futurist 'manifesto' in 1909 at the bottom of the spiral to it's conclusion at the end of World War II in 1944 at the top.


Rather than climb up the Guggenheim's ramp, which seemed daunting, we chose to take the elevator to the top and walk down the ramp.  Despite going 'downhill', the pitch of the ramp took a very hard toll on our older backs, hips and legs. We wonder if Frank Lloyd Wright considered AARP members in his design.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright, viewed by SSW, photo by McClure

The Futurist Manifesto, written in 1909 by the poet, Filippo Tomassa Marinetti, and first published in Bologna in the newspaper 'Gazzetta dell'Emilia': rejected the past; celebrated a future of speed, machines, violence, youth and industry; and advocated the rejuvenation of Italy.  Marinetti believed that Italy should be expanded to include areas of northern Italy that were still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I. This ultra-nationalism led Marinetti to initially align the Futurists with Mussolini and the Fascists, though he later rejected the monumentalism that characterized Mussolini's political maturity.

Among other things, the manifesto sought to diminish feminism and promoted the belief that a woman's primary role was as a wife, mother and homemaker.  This makes the emergence of Marinetti's wife, Benedetta, as a leading visual artist of the Futurist Movement all the more striking.  

At the very top of the exhibit in an annex gallery are the murals from the post office in Palermo, Sicily, done in 1933-34 by Benedetta (Capa Marinelli):

'Synthesis of Communications' by Benedetta (Capa Marinelli), tempura and encaustic on canvas, 1933-34,
photo by Kris McKay 

These murals make their first appearance outside of Italy in the Guggenheim show.  The five panels depict various means of modern (for the mid-1930's) communication.  They are connected artistically by the blue palette as well as their bold shapes and dynamic compositions.

'Synthesis of Communications' by Benedetta (Capa Marinelli), tempura and encaustic on canvas, 1933-34,
photo from Artopia:  an artsjournal blog

As you descend the spiral there is a cornucopia of materials from the Italian Futurist movement -- not only painting and sculpture, but furniture, ceramics, clothing, posters, pamphlets, architectural drawings, films -- way too much to take in in a single viewing.  And despite the generally chronological organization, the whole show comes across as a sprawl of objects with a few high points.

Near the top is an image related to war and aeronautics which captures many of the Futurist themes -- rejection of the past, speed, machines, nationalism, war.

'Flying Over the Coliseum in a Spiral' by Tato (Gulielmo Sansoni), oil on canvas, 1930, photo by Corrado di Grazia

In the annex on the fourth level there is a small amphitheatre which contains materials related to a 1917 art work by a Futurist artist, Giacomo Balla, which was commissioned by Diaghilev to accompany Stravinsky's 'Fireworks'.  

'Sketch for Fireworks' by Giacomo Balla, 1915

In this amphitheatre I ran into Meredith Robbins and her husband, Eric.  Meredith is the Director of Development for the School of American Ballet (where I do volunteer work). All three of us were confused by what was supposed to occur in that amphitheatre, but it was nice finding them there where the Italian Futurist movement intersected with the ballet world of Diaghilev's Ballet Ruses and Stravinsky's music.

Another work by Benedetta from 1923, really captures the motion and speed characteristic of the Futurist movement:

'Speeding Motorboat' by Benedetta (Capa Marinelli), oil on canvas, 1923-24,
photo from the archives of the Gallery of Modern Art, Rome 

Further down the ramp I encountered another dance reference:

'Dancer in Blue' by Gino Severini, 1912, oil on canvas

And also on the ramp was a wonderful old friend we'd seen the previous weekend at MoMA:

'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space' by Umberto Boccioni, bronze, 1913, cast 1949,
Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Apparently there are several castings of this sculpture scattered around the world.  It certainly captures the forward thrust into the future that the movement was all about. Boccioni was also a painter.  I was quite taken with this work by Boccioni from the very early days of Futurism near the bottom of the ramp:

'The City  Rises' by Umberto Boccioni, oil on canvas, 1910, Collection of The Museum of Modern Art

But, my overall impression of this exhibition is of clutter, lots of clutter.  Italian Futurism needed to be rescued from its bad associations with Mussolini and Facism, but not by an overwhelming avalanche of knick-knacks and second rate art tumbling down the Guggenheim's ramp.