Italian Futurism Becomes the Guggenheim’s Present
Mapos Designer
This past weekend I visited the Guggenheim to view the new “Italian Futurism” show, a multidisciplinary display of Futurist work from 1909 through the end of World War II. The Futurist movement was a result of Fascist Italy rejecting past institutions and merging artistic and political agendas to march Italy into a new age, across a broad spectrum of media employed by the Futurists graphics, and mind-warping perspectives.
Fortunato Depero, Skyscrapers and Tunnels (Gratticieli e tunnel), 1930. Tempera on paper, 68 x 102 cm. MART, Museo d arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome. Photo: © MART, Archivio Fotografico
Across the broad spectrum of mediums employed by the Futurists, a combination of cubism and expressionism creates a visual celebration of light, speed, and movement. Through the bright colors, bold graphics, and mind-warping perspectives, I could practically hear the artists shouting for a modern, industrialized city.
The action I unknowingly imagined later became reality that evening during the Guggenheim’s pay-as-you-wish admissions night. A group of forty activists held an impromptu protest against the horrific labor conditions of migrant workers, who would build the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Frank Lloyd Wright’s “temple of the spirit” became the perfect podium for a protest. People lined the atrium with bold banners and shouted out against the very institution they inhabited. If it couldn’t get any more perfect, they had a backdrop of Futurist artwork to cheer them on.
The action I unknowingly imagined later became reality that evening during the Guggenheim’s pay-as-you-wish admissions night. A group of forty activists held an impromptu protest against the horrific labor conditions of migrant workers, who would build the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Frank Lloyd Wright’s “temple of the spirit” became the perfect podium for a protest. People lined the atrium with bold banners and shouted out against the very institution they inhabited. If it couldn’t get any more perfect, they had a backdrop of Futurist artwork to cheer them on.
