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

scenographer A scenographer or production designer, 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 originated in theater. A scenographer work ...

. He assisted in the design of the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution and was (like Gerardo Dottori) active in Aeropainting. 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 Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an 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 a painter, scenographer and architect. He had close contacts with the representatives of the European avant-garde art, with the Section d'Or, Dadaism, the Bauhaus, De Stijl, the

Abstraction-Création Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the Surrealist group led by André Breton. Founders Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo started th ...

group, with Pablo Picasso,

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

, Wassily Kandinsky and Jean Cocteau. From 1913 for a period collaborates with the monthly magazine in Milan. 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. Prampolini's work occupies a place of its own in the European abstract art, characterized by its deep concern for the dynamism and Organicism , 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, which was realised by

Fillìa Fillìa (3 October 1904 – 10 February 1936) was the name adopted by Luigi Colombo, an Italian artist associated with the second generation of Futurism. Aside from painting, his works included interior design, architecture, furniture and d ...

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 Spezzino dialect) 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 ...

. 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 (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. In 1944 he taught theatre and set design at the Brera Academy 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 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 Olympic competitors in art competitions Brera Academy faculty