Futurist Skies

Italian Aeropainting


Estorick Collection, London

6 January - 20 February 2005

a cura di Renato Miracco




We are delighted to be hosting this exhibition of aeropainting - a long-standing ambition of ours ever since the works of Tullio Crali, Gerardo Dottori and Benedetta Marinetti drew such attention and admiration during the gallery's first loan exhibition, Balla and Futurist Italy, back in 1998.

It is a source of particular pride for the Estorick Collection to be once more contributing to the destruction of the myth that Futurism died during the First World War along with Umberto Boccioni, arguably the movement's most important artist. Futurism in fact continued to thrive in Italy throughout the 1920s and 1930s, deepening its exploration of the ways in which technology enriched and expanded the human experience - a line of research of which aeropainting represented one of the most complete expressions. The aeroplane had long been a source of interest for the Futurists: it was in fact a flight "two hundred metres above the mighty chimney pots of Milan" that Inspired F.T. Marinetti's poetic rev­olution of "words-in-liberty" as early as 1912. However, the 1930s saw a more consistent engagement with the subject of flight in response to the development of Italy's aeronautics industry and the great achievements of its aviators - Italo Balbo's transatlantic formation flights being the most significant. At the beginning of the twenty-first century it is perhaps all too easy to forget how incredible it must have been to see the world from previously unknown and impossible perspectives, and the images in this exhibition capture the excitement of what Marinetti called "the immense visual and sensory drama of flight", perhaps inspir­ing in ourselves a similar, renewed sense of wonder.

This exhibition would nor have happened without the commitment of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which I would like to thank once again for its support and in particular the Hon. Mario Baccini; the Italian Ambassador, H.E. Giancarlo Aragona; Minister Anna BIefari-Melazzi, Director General, Cultural Promotion and Cooperation Department; Minister Lucio Alberto Savoia, Vice Director General; Con. Mauro Marsili, Head of OfficeII (Cultural Events). Our thanks also go to the Italian Cultural Institute in London and to Fondazione Foedus in Rome. I am deeply grateful to Renato Miracco, curator of the exhibition, who has been fun­damental in getting the exhibition to London.

As always, the Estorick Collection is indebted to all lenders both private and public, without which the exhibition would not come alive. My thanks go once more to all the staff of the Estorick Collection and to Ken Syme whose help and encouragement is always appreciated.

Roberta Cremoncini
Director, Estorick Collection








GIACOMO BALLA - Plate with Caproni Aeroplanes, 1928







ENRICO PRAMPOLINI - Cosmic Revolution, 1932







DOMENICO BELLI - Pausing in Space, 1935






Info Mostra
Futurist Skies

Data della mostra
6 January - 20 February 2005

Catalogo disponibile presso la mostra.