Italian Art and Architecture

By the early 20th century, Milan had become Italy's most important industrial centre, and it is therefore hardly surprising that the city should have been the centre of Futurism, an artistic movement that celebrated the dynamism and excitement of modern urban life. Futurism was founded in 1909 by the writer and activist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and, as well as affecting the visual arts, extended to literature, dance, and music. However, the movement is best known through the paintings of Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, and Luigi Russolo. The Futurists were initially influenced by Divisionist painting and the sculpture of Medardo Rosso but, from 1912, they adopted the interpenetrating planes of Cubism, which deliberately confounded the distinction between the object and its surroundings. Occasionally, Futurism arrived at a point of total abstraction, consisting of dynamic patterns of shapes and lines, as in Balla's Abstract Speed (1914). Generally, however, the Futurists depicted aspects of the modern city, ranging from dancehalls to suburban railway trains, although they also produced some memorable military images during World War I.

Marinetti was a fervent supporter of Benito Mussolini, and in the 1920s encouraged the Fascist regime to support Futurism. However, the Fascists tended to favour more traditional figurative styles, as indeed did most of the former avant-garde, who had begun to move away from Futurism during World War I. At this time, such artists as Severini and Carrà worked on the decoration of many public buildings. Other like-minded artists included Giorgio de Chirico, who during the 1910s had created disturbing dreamlike paintings, which were extremely influential on the Surrealists. During the inter-war period, however, de Chirico and his colleagues emphasized the classical qualities of their work, while never entirely forgetting their previous innovations. Similarly, such architects as Marcello Piacentini tended to create monumental buildings, inspired by ancient Rome, which were intended to express the imperial aspirations of the regime. On the other hand, the Italian Fascists were more tolerant of modern styles than were their German allies, and commissioned some memorable Modernist buildings, such as Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio (1932-1936), in Como.

Italy's economic recovery after World War II resulted in a number of spectacular buildings, particularly those of Pier Luigi Nervi, who created extremely original architectural forms out of reinforced concrete. Avant-garde art also flourished, most notably in the work of Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, and Piero Manzoni, who exerted an important influence on the development of Arte Povera. While these artists attempted to overturn traditional concepts of art, the figurative tradition continued to survive in this period. The painter Renato Guttuso, a dedicated communist, expressed his social concerns in dramatic, freely painted canvases, while monumental sculptures were produced by Marino Marini, Giacomo Manzù, and Francesco Messina.

The popularity of figurative art was enhanced in the last two decades of the 20th century by the Transavanguardia movement, which included Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, and Mimmo Paladino. These artists created enigmatic, eclectic paintings, often referring to ancient mythology, which exemplified the Postmodernism of the late 20th century. Their allusions to Italy's cultural heritage also demonstrated a recurrent theme in the history of Italian art—its perennial ability to adapt the classical tradition to contemporary conditions.