4. The 1920s and Mechanical Art

Throughout the 1920s, when Europe was engaged in reconstructing and converting its industry after the Great War, Futurist art stood in full, close accord with the other avant-garde movements in Europe, contributing to maintaining an open, international approach in Italian art in the dark period of the rise of Fascism.
Depero, who had ushered in mechanical art in the mid 1910s, continued in this vein, along with Balla, Prampolini, Pannaggi and Paladini, the Turin Futurists - Fillia, Diulgheroff, Farfa and Mino Rosso kept the theoretical aspect alive and to the fore, creating exemplary works in the current of mechanical art and the new cult of the machine, now viewed as an “idol”, bestower of geometric rigour and formal clarity.

ENRICO PRAMPOLINI, La geometria della voluttà, 1923 ca.
Olio su tela; 100x150 cm
Lugano, collezione privata

NICOLAJ DIULGHEROFF, L’uomo razionale, 1928
Olio su tela; 113,5x99 cm
Collezione privata

BENEDETTA, Velocità di motoscafo, 1919-1924
Olio su tela; 70x110 cm
Roma, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, © Comune di Roma, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea