This spring I attended the Italian Futurism exhibit at the GuggenheimMuseum in New York. I’d read about the exhibit in October 2013, and added it to my ‘must do’ list, even if that meant sofa surfing at a friends apartment. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary. As I understand it, this exhibit is the first survey of this period in the United States, which makes it ground breaking in and of itself.  The easiest way to describe this movement would be to call it  Italian Art Deco, however, the Italian Futurism period dates from 1909 – 1944 and includes other elements. “Their style evolved from fractured elements in the 1910’s  to a mechanical language in the 20’s, and then to aerial imagery in the 30’s”.

I’ve chosen the images above because like Art Deco, there was a fascination and celebration of speed, including planes, trains and automobiles. The image of the train above is more cubist in nature, which was the basis for Art Deco. Before the Parachute Opens was one of my favorite paintings in the entire exhibit. Large in scale, it was the first time I’d seen a painting from this perspective and seemed to exemplify what the exhibit was about. No photography was allowed beyond the signage in the lobby, therefore, I’ve used these images from the Guggenheim web site.

Exhibit closes September 1, 2014