Begoña and I, recently went to see: From Divisionism to Futurism, at Fundación MAPFRE Recoletos Exhibition Hall. The exposition is subtitled The dawn of modern art in Italy and will be open until 5 June, 2016.
Through a selection of 80 great works of art, this exhibition looks to examine the origins and evolution of Divisionism with its main protagonists, including Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Giaccomo Balla, Angelo Morbelli, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Carlo Carrà. These artists influenced the renewal of Italian art between the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century and the appearance of Futuristic art.
The exhibition has been organized by Fundación MAPFRE in collaboration with the MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, and has loans from numerous international private collections and institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna and the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Galleria degli Uffizi, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma, the Museo Segantini, the Centre George Pompidou, the Gemeentemuseum and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, among others. Source: Fundación MAPFRE.
In the exhibition brochure we can read:
Divisionism appeared in 1891 at the Triennale di Brera in Milan with the first “public” appearance of a group of young painters who were supported by the critic and art dealer Vittore Grubicy de Dragon. although arising from the same theoretical sources that gave rise to Pointillism in France, Divisionism was an independent movement, differing from Pointillism in the way it understood the new research on the deconstruction of light and colour as a means –not an end- subjected to the message of the work, and with a particular focus on subjects from modern life. attentive on the one hand to “social” themes that reflected the problems of the poorest classes in the new, united Italy, Divisionism simultaneously reveal its relationship with Symbilism, the international trend that had extended across Europe at the end of the 19th century. In the work of artists such as Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza and Angelo Morbelli, these two tendencies gave rise to a fascinating representation of reality located midway between truth and symbol.
The revolutionary power of the Divisionist language laid the way for the birth of Futurism. Led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, it emerged with force on the Italian art scene in 1909 and became one of the quintessential avant-garde movements. Its new aesthetic based on the exaltation of progress and the dynamism of modern life expressed the desire for renewal that was widespread among younger artists of the time such as Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo and Gino Severini, all of them guided by Giacomo Balla.
The present exhibition aims to analyse the relationships that arose between these trends: a dialogue between two generations which defined the birth of modern painting in Italy.
For additional information click here.
A Crime is Afoot 