Enrico Prampolini (20 April 1894, Modena – 17 June 1956, Rome) was an Italian

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

painter, sculptor and

scenographer A scenographer or scenic designer, also production designer, is a person who develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term ori ...

. He assisted in the design of the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution and was (like Gerardo Dottori) active in

Aeropainting Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

. He pursued a programme of abstract and quasi-abstract painting, combined with a career in stage design. His ''Spatial-Landscape Construction'' (1919) is quasi-abstract with large flat areas in bold colours, predominantly red, orange, blue and dark green. His ''Simultaneous Landscape'' (1922) is totally abstract, with flat colours and no attempt to create perspective. In his ''Umbrian Landscape'' (1929), produced in the year of the Aeropainting Manifesto, Prampolini returns to figuration, representing the hills of Umbria. But by 1931 he had adopted "cosmic idealism", a biomorphic abstractionism quite different from the works of the previous decade, for example in ''Pilot of the Infinite'' (1931) and ''Biological Apparition'' (1940). Prampolini was an influence on Tullio Crali.

Life

After studying with Dullio Cambellotti at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he became a leading member of the Futurist Movement as a painter, scenographer and architect. He had close contacts with the representatives of the European avant-garde art, with the Section d'Or,

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

, the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

De Stijl De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...

, the Abstraction-Création group, with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

. From 1913 for a period collaborates with the monthly magazine ''Varietas'' in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. In 1917, with Bino Sanminiatelli he founded the magazine '' Noi''. The same year, he realised the sets for the futurist film Thaïs, directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia. He created the interior of a dream and suffocating villa, whose walls are decorated with spirals, lozenges, chessboards and symbolic figures. This film had a significant influence on the anti-naturalistic scenes of

German Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

. Prampolini's work occupies a place of its own in the European abstract art, characterized by its deep concern for the dynamism and

Organicism Organicism is the philosophical position that states that the universe and its various parts (including human societies) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a living organism.Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Emb ...

, which manifests itself in the cosmic visions and dreams of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1927 he founded the "Futurist Theatre Prampolini". In 1928 he conceived the Futurist Pavilion at the "Esposizione del Valentino" in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, which was realised by Fillìa and Pino Curtone. Together with Fillia, he realized in 1933 a large mosaic ''Le comunicazioni'' for the tower of the ''Palazzo delle Poste'' in

La Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguria ...

. After the futurist experience, he produced different materials and works, sometimes influenced by the visions of the microcosm. He declared that his aim to express the extreme latitudes of the introspective world. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

. In 1944 he taught theatre and set design at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

in Milan.

References

External links

Enrico Prampolini
arte-argomenti.org. URL consultato il 08-07-2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prampolini, Enrico Italian Futurist painters Futurist sculptors 1894 births 1956 deaths Italian abstract painters Italian male painters Italian male sculptors Italian scenic designers Artists from Modena 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists Art competitors at the 1936 Summer Olympics Academic staff of Brera Academy Italian magazine founders Burials at Campo Verano