February 3 – May 19, 1996
February 3, 1996: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection re-opens to the public with the exhibition of Umberto Boccioni: Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses, dedicated to Futurist painter and sculptor Umberto Boccioni, and to his last, great sculpture, Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses (1914-1915), which is part of the Guggenheim permanent collection. The exhibition highlights the importance of Dynamism of a Speeding Horse as one of the only five survivign sculptures by Boccioni, author in 1912 of the Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture. Boccioni died tragically aged 33 in 1916, and much of his work was destroyed soon after. Dynamism of a Speeding Horse is the only surviving work constructed of the manifold materials that were brandished as the vehicle of ‘plastic emotion’ in Boccioni’s sculpture manifesto: “even twenty materials can be used together in a single work […] glass, wood, cardboard, iron, cement, horsehair, leather, cloth, mirrors, electric lights, etc. etc.”
Paintings and drawings by Boccioni on the theme of the horse-without-rider have been assembled with the sculpture for the first time since they left Boccioni’s studio. The exhibition consists of twenty works from Italian and international public and private collections. Sculptures by Boccioni’s contemporaries on the equestrian theme document the complex relations between Futurism, the civic equestrian monuent in Italy (Calandra, Bistolfi, Balzico), and the ‘salon’ bronze (Meunier, Trouetzkoy, Bayre, and Degas).
Fred Licht, art historian and specialist in modern Italian sculpture, has curated the exhibition. The catalog, designed by Michela Scibilia and published by the Guggenheim museums, is fully illustrated and includes essays by Fred Licht (on Boccioni and equestrian imagery at the turn of the century), by Ester Coen (on the Futurist meanings of Boccioni’s Dynamism of a Speeding Horse), and by Sergio Angelucci (on a new critical reading of Boccioni’s sculpture based on new documentation and on his findings during conservation of the work). The catalogue also excerpts Angelica Rudenstine’s entry for Boccioni’s sculpture in her award winning catalogue raisonné of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (1985).
Umberto Boccioni: Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses is supported by the Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York. The Rayburn Foundation has been the partner of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection for previous exhibition: Homage to Lucio Fontana (1987) and Immagini italiane (1993). Alitalia is the official carrier for Peggy Guggenheim Collection exhibitions.
The Regione Veneto contributes annually to the didactic and cultural programs for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. A free brochure for schools, on Boccioni and Futurism, has been written and printed thanks to the funding of the Assessorato alla Pubblica Istruzione (Servizi Educativi) of the city of Venice and of Intrapresæ Collezione Guggenheim.
This exhibition is the second in a series of exhibitions dedicated to the artists, themes and masterpieces in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection: the first was Alberto Giacometti from the Guggenheim and Nasher Collections, and a third, focussed on Picasso’s The Studio (1928), is in preparation for November 1996. These exhibitons are made possible thanks to the annual contributions of a group of important Italian companies, the Intrapresæ Collezione Guggenheim: Aermec, Arclinea, Bisazza Mosaico, Cartiere Miliani Fabriano, Gruppo 3M Italia, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Impresa Gadola, Luciano Marcato, Permasteelisa, Pomellato, Reggiani Illuminazione, Rex Built-In, Sàfilo Group, Swatch.