In this lively series, distinguished scholars present current research on a range of significant themes, artists, and disciplines within Italian Futurism including arte meccanica (mechanical art), World War I and Futurist women writers and artists, and the art and theories of Tattilismo (Tactilism).

All programs include an exhibition viewing of Italian Futurism, 1909—1944: Reconstructing the Universe.

April 1: Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
May 7: Christine Poggi, Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
May 20: Lucia Re, Professor of Italian and Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

F. T. Marinetti, Sudan-Paris, 1920 (detail). Mixed media, including sponge, sandpaper, grater, wool, brush, silver-coated paper, silk, velvet, and feathers, on cardboard, 63 x 37 x 10 cm. Private collection

Touch without Sight: Futurist Tactilism

Tuesday, April 1, 2014 @ 6:30 pm

Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

In 1921 F. T. Marinetti announced a new direction in Futurist artistic practice with the presentation of his first tactile panels on the stage of the Théâtre de l’Œuvre in Paris, followed by two manifestos, the “Futurist Manifesto of Tactilism” (1921) and “Toward the Discovery of New Senses” (1924). Tactile panels were composed of variously textured materials whose qualities were to be understood solely by touch; participants were blindfolded or otherwise temporarily deprived of sight in a “journey of the hands.”

In this lecture, Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, documents how Marinetti’s Tactilism had specific roots in his personal experiences of trench warfare, the educational methods of Maria Montessori, and contemporary experimental psychology. As always, Marinetti’s creative endeavors had an ideological agenda and his Tactilism was no exception; nor was it intended as merely another form of avant-garde provocation. Instead, his emphasis on touch and its curative effects acknowledged the vulnerability of the “human machine” in the aftermath of the Great War. An exhibition viewing follows the lecture.

Ivo Pannaggi, Speeding Train (Treno in corsa), 1922 (detail). Oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm. Fondazione Carima–Museo Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, Italy. Photo: Courtesy Fondazione Cassa di risparmio della Provincia di Macerata

Ivo Pannaggi, Arte Meccanica, and the International Avant-Garde

Wednesday, May 7, 2014 @ 6:30 pm

Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

In 1922, Ivo Pannaggi and Vinicio Paladini published their “Manifesto of Futurist Mechanical Art,” launching postwar Futurist debates on the role of the machine in modern life and art. This presentation by Christine Poggi, Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania, considers the Futurist cult of the machine as it developed in the 1920s, expanding to include painting, theater design and costumes, advertising, graphics, and architectural decor. Focusing especially on Pannaggi, Poggi situates his Futurist work in relation to international avant-garde movements, including Purism, De Stijl, Constructivism, and the Bauhaus. Along with his paintings and graphic designs, Pannaggi’s costumes and sets for Ruggero Vasari’s Futurist play The Anguish of the Machines, his photomontages, and his interior decorations and furnishings for the Casa Zampini near Macerata situate this artist at the nexus of artistic currents of his time. An exhibition viewing follows the lecture.

Rosa Rosà (Edyth von Haynau), “Women of the Near Future” (“Le donne del posdomani”). Published inL’Italia Futurista 2, no. 30 (Oct. 7, 1917). Rovereto, MART, Archivio del ’900. Photo: © MART, Archivio del ’900

War, Women, and Sexuality in the Futurist Avant-Garde

Tuesday, May 20, 2014 @ 6:30 pm

Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Following an introduction of some of the most important Futurist women writers and artists who emerged during the First World War and contributed to the journal L’Italia futurista, Lucia Re, Professor of Italian and Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) discusses the debate on women’s roles, sexuality, and gender equality that arose in conjunction with the publication of F.T. Marinetti's wartime seduction “manual” Come si seducono le donne. An exhibition viewing follows the lecture.

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