On the centennial of Umberto Boccioni’s death (1882-1916), the City of Milan and Mart of Rovereto celebrate the artist with two exhibitions highlighting his artistic path and international calibre with the aid of previously unpublished archival materials. The exhibition at Palazzo Reale (23 March – 10 July 2016) will be echoed by the grand exhibition at Mart (5 November 2016 – 19 February 2017).
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916): Genius and Memory is a project offering a selective itinerary through the visual sources that contributed to Boccioni’s artistic training and stylistic development. After Milan, Umberto Boccioni’s oeuvre is explored in Rovereto by juxtaposing it with the works of his contemporaries, many coming from the MART collections, and with invaluable archival materials. The exhibition dialogues with the exhibitory work of the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero and is amplified by the international research of the Archive of the 20th Century, home to the International Futurism Study Centre.

“The exhibition dedicated to Umberto Boccioni represents an occasion for a prestigious collaboration between Mart and the museum spaces of the City of Milan to explore new motifs in interpreting the work of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.
This exhibition also reaffirms the vocation of the Rovereto museum, which once again sets research into the invention of modernity as the focus of its primary cultural objectives, with particular regard, in the city of Fortunato Depero, on critical assessments of Futurism. And it was indeed the Mart archives that provided materials to enrich the extraordinary itinerary at the exhibition in Palazzo Reale.
We must underscore the stature and boldness of a project that makes no concessions to the fashion of retrospective exhibitions on the crowning figures in modern art. Instead it avails itself of fundamental works, sources and documents that provide a rigorous reminder of the responsibility of curators to plumb the meanings and rationale underpinning any exhibition, which must always be understood as an interpretive and cultural contribution to enhancing the legacy entrusted to public museums. The potential of this important initiative grows out of that shared responsibility.”
Gianfranco Maraniello