Boccioni, Umberto (1882–1916)

Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist. One of the founders of Futurism, he pioneered a semi-abstract style that sought to depict movement and speed, as in his sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 (Tate Gallery, London).

Born in Reggio, Calabria, he studied in Rome under Giacomo Balla and settled in Milan, where he met the poet Filippo Marinetti, who had launched Futurism 1909. They and several others published the Manifesto of Futurist Painters 1910. Bocccioni published his Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture 1912, advocating, among other things, the combination of various materials in one sculpture to escape from academic concepts. Most of the works that put these ideas into practice are now known only in photographs.