FORTUNATO DEPERO 1892 - 1960

Italian painter, designer, writer

active in performance, advertising and the theatre.

 

see exhibition catalogue,

Futurismo & Futurismi

Bompiani, Milan

(English text version)

1986

Depero used a geometric but gaudy style - the MODERN MECHANICAL - which contrasted with the European Modernist aesthetic of the time - say, Ozenfant's PURISM. His world was an evocation of an energetic and mysterious Fairy Tale land, from which his theatrical experiments naturally grew. In 1917, on Capri, he started his constructions often made of cardboard which were used in both advertising and theatre.

 

In the Depero Room of the (1923)First Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Monza, the artist shows a number of three dimensional works using paper which can be contrasted with his own two-dimensional work.

 

In the Milan catalogue, see p.176 for paperwork and p.179 for puppet designs.

 

Other Futurists who used paper as a material within sculture and relief e.g. Umberto Boccioni (Dynamism of a Racing Horse + House 1914-1915)