Zang Tumb Tuuum : la révolution futuriste

Zang Tumb Tuuum : la révolution futuriste

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 17. Studenti in Lettere. Università. 1915. Seminal work, featured in 3 historical futurist exhibitions   .

Cangiullo, Francesco

Studenti in Lettere. Università. 1915. Seminal work, featured in 3 historical futurist exhibitions

Lot Closed

December 7, 03:17 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 EUR

Lot Details

Description

Cangiullo, Francesco


Studenti in Lettere. Università.

1915.


Seminal work by Cangiullo, featured in the futurist exhibitions of 1918, 1919 and 1922.


Collage, gouache and Indian ink on brown cardboard. Signed “F. Cangiullo. Roma” in the bottom right. 35.5 x 44.2 cm. Exhibition label (Winter Club, 1922) lower left corner.


The letters of the alphabet are “humanized”, climbing an imposing staircase up to the monumental entrance of a faculty of letters: Cangiullo plays on the Italian designation for students of the humanities, literally “students in letters”. The same composition was also done as a smaller ink sketch. (The Futurist Imagination, No 40, repr. p. 57).

 

After the war, Marinetti considered that books as a support for paroliberist poetics were an outdated form. The Grande Esposizione Nazionale del Futurismo that he organized in 1919 to revitalize the movement's activity showcased several works - among them these Studenti in Lettere - referring to them as “paroliberist plates”, “mural poetry”, with the pieces in question now truly considered “paintings to be viewed and no longer compositions to be read or declaimed”.

_____________________________________________________________


Cangiullo, Francesco


Studenti in Lettere. Università.

1915.


Importante œuvre de Cangiullo, qui a figuré aux expositions futuristes de 1918, 1919 et 1922.


Collage, gouache et encre de Chine sur carton brun. Signé "F. Cangiullo. Roma" en bas à droite. 35,5 x 44,2 cm. Étiquette d’exposition (Winter Club, 1922) en bas à gauche.


Les lettres de l’alphabet sont "humanisées", en train de monter un imposant escalier vers l’entrée monumentale d’une faculté de lettres : Cangiullo joue sur l’expression "étudiants en lettres". La même composition a fait l’objet d’un dessin à l’encre, de plus petit format (The Futurist Imagination, n° 40, repr. p. 57).

 

Après la guerre, Marinetti considérait que l’usage du livre comme support de la poétique motlibriste était dépassé. La Grande Esposizione Nazionale del Futurismo qu’il organisa en 1919 pour relancer l’activité du mouvement présentait plusieurs œuvres — dont ces Studenti in Lettere — en les qualifiant de "planches motlibristes", de "poésie murale", les œuvres étant désormais de "vrais tableaux à regarder et non plus des compositions à lire ou à déclamer".

F.-T. Marinetti

Luce Marinetti, daughter of the artist (by descent)

Private collection (acquired from the former).


F.-T. Marinetti

Luce Marinetti, fille de l’artiste (par descendance)

Collection particulière (acquis auprès de la précédente).

The Futurist Imagination. New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1983, p. 57-58 et 89.

Roma, Casa d’Arte Bragaglia, Prima Esposizione dell’Alfabeto a Sorpresa. Creazione dei Futuristi Cangiullo e Pasqualino, novembre 1918, listé p. [11].

Milano-Genova-Firenze, Galleria Centrale d’Arte, Grande Esposizione Nazionale del Futurismo, 1919, n° 383 ou 384.

Torino, Winter Club, Esposizione Futurista Internazionale, 1922, n° 35 (étiquette).

Venise, Palazzo Grassi, Futurismo & Futurismi, 1986, p. 147.

Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Art & Publicité, 1990-1991, p. 192.

Tokyo, Sezon Museum of Art ; Kobe, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Art & Publicité, 1991, n° 126.

Marseille, Musées de Marseille, Poésure et Peintrie, 1993, p. 61.

Wien, Kunstforum, Futurismus. Radikale Avantgarde, 2003, ill. 51, cat. n° 47.

Studenti in lettere. Università 1915, collage, gouache and collage on paper, where the letters of the alphabet are represented as students climbing the University’s majestic staircase that leads them to the Faculty of “Letters”. In this amusing creation based on a play on words, the letters of the alphabet are “charged or distorted”, as Marinetti writes, “then make an effort of further distortion to become materials of architecture and characters of a Futurist drama”. Like other works by Cangiullo, this one was shown in the two alfabeto a sorpresa exhibitions held by Bragaglia in Rome in 1918 and at the Galleria Centrale d’Arte in Milan in 1919, and then at the Winter Club in Turin in 1922.” (Luigi Sansone, “Free verse and words in freedom”, preface of this sale).