Italian Futurist Wall Sculpture with Anthropoform Shapes, 1912

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In the context of Italian Futurism, an artistic movement that revolutionized art and thought in the early 20th century, sculpture … Read more In the context of Italian Futurism, an artistic movement that revolutionized art and thought in the early 20th century, sculpture is one of the fields where the search for new expressive languages is most powerfully expressed. Futurist sculpture not only breaks away from academic tradition but also strives to represent reality in motion, capturing the dynamic essence of modern life. A significant example of this exploration is a wall sculpture made of wood, which perfectly embodies the stylistic features of Futurism.

This sculptural work, entirely crafted from wood, features a series of decorative inserts that appear to "vibrate" upwards. The choice to use wood, a traditional material, in an innovative context accentuates the connection between tradition and the new Futurist approach. The decorations, shaped with broken and irregular lines, suggest the incessant movement typical of machines and modern life, themes that Futurists sought to explore in their works. The forms that rise upwards, like an ascending motion, suggest the idea of energy being released, embodying the sense of speed and continuous change.

Futurism, as an artistic movement, was intrinsically linked to the representation of dynamism and simultaneity, concepts that were developed in the Futurist manifestos, including Boccioni's manifesto of 1912, which outlined the need for sculpture to express movement and vitality in a new and original way. This wooden sculpture fits perfectly into this context, as its structure and decorations almost seem to "come to life," suggesting an ongoing transformation in space. The broken lines and forms in motion embody Boccioni's principle of "the interpenetration of planes," which he explored both theoretically and practically in his works, and which finds a plastic expression in wood here. See less