GINO SEVERINI: a Futurist from Cortona

One hundred years ago the Figaro published the Manifesto of Futurism which had been signed by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo e Gino Severini. The movement involved all the artistic expressions of the time and followed the technological revolution of the early 20^th century; the Futurists’ interests were progress, dynamism, speed, industry, even war and their attitude was often anarchic. In painting they abolished traditional perspective as they thought that only a simultaneous vision could give the idea of dynamism.

Gino Severini was from Cortona but he used to say that, artistically, he was born in Paris which he reached in 1906: after classicism and divisionism, he met Picasso and with Cubism his painting turned into a kaleidoscopic vision made of lights and colours, past and present, space and time, fragmented and overlapped images.

Many of his works are still  in Cortona’s MAEC, Diocesan Museum, Cathedral, St. Nicholas’ but there is a number of them in the open air too, such as the Way of the Cross taking to St. Margaret’s Sanctuary and the other huge mosaic on St. Mark’s façade. Gino Severini died in Paris in 1966 but, according to his will, he was buried in his home town; after Luca Signorelli and Pietro Berrettini, Gino Severini: another internationally reputed artist from Cortona.