Gino Severini - A Modern Synthesizer

Gino Severini - Italian, Festival in Montmartre, 1913, Oil on canvas - 35 x 45 3/4 in. (88.9 x 116.2 cm) - Bequest of Richard S. Zeisler, 2007.281, Art Institute of Chicago (click photo for larger image)Gino Severini was an Italian Cubist/Futurist Painter, 1883-1966, who synthesized the styles of Cubism and Futurism. Futurism refers to a modern art movement originating among Italian artists in 1909. The movement lasted until the end of World War I--but only caught real hold in Italy. The Futurists hoped to wrench Italy from what they saw as her languid, retrospective dream of an antique and Renaissance past into the shrill, dynamic realities of the industrial present. To accomplish this aim, they needed to develop a style as aggressive and contemporary as their new urban environment. Thus, futurism was a celebration of the machine age, glorifying war and favoring the growth of fascism. Futurist painting and sculpture were especially concerned with expressing movement and the dynamics of natural and man-made forms. Some of these ideas, including the use of modern materials and techniques, were taken up later by Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887-1968), as well as by the Cubists, and the Constructivists.

A Work of Futurism...PLUS!

Gino Severini, Abstract Rhythm of Madame M.S., c. 1915, oil on canvas, 83x65 cm, Mizne-Blumental Collection, Tel Aviv Museum of Art

The Museum of Tel Aviv holds numerous works by important Italian artists, several of which are presently on exhibit there. Gino Severini is represented by one of his famous Futurist paintings from c. 1915, featured here. Severini (1883-1996) was an Italian painter, born in Cortona. In 1901 he moved to Rome, where he met painters Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla (who gave him lessons in Divisionism). Severini moved to Paris in 1906, and forged friendships with such figures as Picasso, Apollinaire, and Max Jacob. While living in Paris, however, he remained in close contact with his Italian associates, and joined the Futurist movement in 1910 . Although much of his Futurist work remains influenced by Divisionism, from c. 1912 forward his work also shows a strong awareness of Cubism, a movement he highly recommended to his fellow Futurists. Futurism developed primarily in Italy, in around 1910. Its objective was to express the energy and values of the machine age.