One of the leading figures in the Futurist movement, as well as one of its theorists, Fortunato Depero was an eclectic artist, ranging in his long career from painting to theatre, from set design to the applied arts and from publishing to advertising, creating what can be described as a “total” art form.
To this multifaceted figure, Mantua is dedicating for the first time an exhibition to be presented at the Palazzo della Ragione from 7 September 2022 to 26 February 2023, with some 70 works ranging in date from 1917 to 1938 and organised around the three places that marked Depero’s life: Capri, Paris and New York. In Capri the artist experienced one of his most creative seasons, which would reach its climax between 1916 and 1918, the period linked to his theatrical adventure with the Swiss writer Gilbert Clavel as his partner; in Paris his fabric inlays proved a great success at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes; and finally in New York Depero and his wife Rosetta opened Depero’s Futurist House, a sort of American branch of the art house founded in Rovereto in 1919 and specialising in the field of advertising graphics, furniture and applied arts.
The catalogue retraces the stages of this story by placing the artworks in a dialogue with vintage photos, manuscripts and documents, counterpointed by the artist’s own voice, which echoes in the numerous anthological pieces.
€ 25,00