Artist Profile: Umberto Boccioni

Umberto Boccioni was born on October 19, 1882, in Reggio Calabria, Italy. He was born to a minor government employee and his wife. He also had a sister named, Amelia. He grew up mostly in Forli, Genoa, and Padua. He was educated at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. During his short 33 year lifetime, the battle of Wounded Knee too place, the Wright brothers flew the first plane, NAACP was founded, the model T was introduced by Ford, and World War I had begun. Boccioni began his career with drawings, then moved to painting, which were his most famous, and then finally worked on sculptures. In his early art, he studied pointillism and impressionism, but later moved on to futurism, which is what he is famous for. In his art, he struggled with representing movement and the inter-penetration on objects. His most notable pieces are, Unique forms of Continuity in Space, The City Rises, and The Street Enters the House. He passed away on August 17, 1916. Most people don't know that Boccioni was responsible for producing the seminal texts on futuristic art. My favorite pieces of his are, Portrait of Armida Brucky, and Visioni Simultanee.