Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my interest in Italian modernism. Today I encountered by accident into a facet of the subject which was new to me.
I have spent a good part of the day trailing about the area trying to find places which would be willing to display notices of my forthcoming exhibition. The focus of the campaign today was the small neighbouring town of Otley. I was pleased to be welcomed by the local gallery, where they agreed to place one of my posters. On a previous visit to the place I noticed a second-hand book-shop. Because I am in the middle of the process of disposing of surplus parts of my own library I had prepared a list of the items I want to dispose of, and took it in to see if the proprietor was interested in taking any of it. I was not entirely surprised by his refusal as there was barely room in the shop for the two of us to stand among the multiple piles of books. Partly out of courtesy, however, I mentioned my own interest in Italian modernism, and asked if he might by any chance have anything that would interest me. He looked doubtful, but headed off for a rummage.
To my surprise (and his) he came back with a book about Fortunato Depero (1892-1960), who was a member of the Futurist movement in Italy. I had heard of him, but had never really looked at his work, so I bought the book. I have had only a little time to thumb through it since getting back home, but it does look interesting. My previous interest in Futurism has been framed very much by its political context in inter-war Italy, and consequently I have been aware of the explicit political stances taken by various members of the movement, and in particular their tendency towards a degree of sympathy with Fascism. It does seem that with Depero we find an alternative. He seems to have retained his engagement with Futurist themes and imagery, but to have thrown himself into activities relatively marginal to art in the narrower sense, such as interior design and advertising. (He was engaged to design a major campaign for Campari.) In this way he adopted a “protective colouring” during the fascist period, and this served to protect him from the consequences of having been allied with the Mussolini regime after the war. I’m interested to read more.
Talking of things Italian, we also discovered a small Italian restaurant in Otley which we had never encountered before. The menu seemed to be pretty genuine and the things we tried will encourage us to go back (especially the pistachio parties!). I was intrigued to see a reproduction of a picture by Renato Guttuso on the wall …. a figure in marked contrast too Depero!