Wanda Wulz 1903-1984

Robert Koch, San Francisco

Sotheby's New York, 26 April 1989, Sale 5833, Lot 164

Acquired by Margaret W. Weston from the above

Monterey Museum of Art, Passion and Precision: Photographs from the Collection of Margaret W. Weston, January - April 2003

A variant of this image:

Giovanni Lista, Futurism & Photography (London: Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 2001, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 81

Wanda Wulz, the third and last generation in a family of traditional portrait photographers, opened her studio in Trieste, Italy, in 1928.  In addition to working as a portraitist, she also produced experimental still-life compositions, photo-montages, and photo-collages.

Wulz became associated with Futurism in 1931, when she submitted a portrait of the movement's founder and author of its manifesto, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, to Prima Mostra Fotografica Internationale, a Futurist exhibition in Milan.  The following year, she participated in the Mostra Fotografica Futurista di Trieste, where she presented six Futurist-inspired photographs, including a variant of the image offered here.  Titled Futurist Breakfast, this variant shows the same group of objects--the cigarette holders, the ashtray, the half-filled glass--in the same arrangement, but with a rectangle of lighter tonality in the upper right quadrant.  

Futurist Breakfast exemplifies Marinetti's concept of tactilism--in this case, a visual creation of the experience and sensation of different textures.  It also exhibits characteristics of the Synthetic Futurist Theatre's 'Drama of Objects' philosophy, to wit:

     --the creation of an imaginary dimension using anthropomorphic allusions

     --the elimination of perspective

     --the abstract rendering of representational elements

     --the juxtaposition of objects in space

     --the elimination of shadows 

Wulz remained closely associated with the Futurist movement, producing strikingly original works, until the late 1930s, when she returned to studio portraiture.

Photographs by Wanda Wulz are rare.  It is believed that only five prints by Wulz have previously been offered at auction, including the present photograph, purchased here by Margaret Weston in 1989.

As of this writing, the present print and variant described above, in the Museo de Storia della Fotografia of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence, are the only two prints from this 'Breakfast' series that have been located.