Aeropittura (''Aeropainting'') was a major expression of the second generation of Italian

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

, from 1929 through the early 1940s. The technology and excitement of flight, directly experienced by most aeropainters,Osborn, Bob, ''Tullio Crali: the Ultimate Futurist Aeropainter''
offered aeroplanes and

aerial landscape ::''(This article concerns painting and other non-photographic media. Otherwise, see aerial photography)'' Aerial landscape art includes paintings and other visual arts which depict or evoke the appearance of a landscape from a perspective abo ...

as new subject matter. Aeropainting was varied in subject matter and treatment, including realism (especially in works of propaganda), abstraction, dynamism, quiet Umbrian landscapes, portraits of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

(e.g., Dottori's ''Portrait of il Duce''), devotional religious paintings, and decorative art.

Origins

Aeropainting was launched in a manifesto of 1929, ''Perspectives of Flight'', signed by

Benedetta Cappa Benedetta Cappa (14 August 1897 – 15 May 1977) was an Italian futurist artist who has had retrospectives at the Walker Art Center and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Her work fits within the second phase of Italian Futurism. Biography Bened ...

Fortunato Depero Fortunato Depero (30 March 1892 – 29 November 1960) was an Italian futurist painter, writer, sculptor, and graphic designer. Biography Although born in Fondo or in the neighboring village of Malosco, according to other sources (in the It ...

Gerardo Dottori Gerardo Dottori (11 November 1884 – 13 June 1977) was an Italian Futurist painter. He signed the ''Futurist Manifesto of Aeropainting'' in 1929. He was associated with the city of Perugia most of his life, living in Milan for six months as ...

, Fillìa,

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

, Enrico Prampolini, Mino Somenzi and Guglielmo Sansoni (Tato). The artists stated that "The changing perspectives of flight constitute an absolutely new reality that has nothing in common with the reality traditionally constituted by a terrestrial perspective" and that "Painting from this new reality requires a profound contempt for detail and a need to synthesise and transfigure everything." Art critic / historian Enrico Crispolti identifies three main "positions" in aeropainting: "a vision of cosmic projection, at its most typical in Prampolini's 'cosmic idealism' ... ; a 'reverie' of aerial fantasies sometimes verging on fairy-tale (for example in Dottori ...); and a kind of aeronautical documentarism that comes dizzyingly close to direct celebration of machinery (particularly in

Tullio Crali Tullio Crali (6 December 1910, in Igalo – 5 August 2000, in Milan) was an Italian artist associated with Futurism. A self-taught painter, he was a late adherent to the movement, not joining until 1929. He is noted for realistic paintings ...

, but also in Tato and Ambrosi)."

Artists

Eventually there were over a hundred aeropainters. The most able were Balla, Depero, Prampolini, Dottori and Crali.

was the co-author with Balla of ''The Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe'', (1915) a radical manifesto for the revolution of everyday life. He practised painting, design, sculpture, graphic art, illustration, interior design, stage design and ceramics.Martin, S., ''Futurism'',

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, pu ...

, n.d. The decorative element comes to the fore in Depero's later painting, e.g. ''Train Born from the Sun'' (1924). He applied this approach in theatre design and commercial art - e.g. his unrealised designs for Stravinsky's ''Chant du Rossignol'', (1916) his large tapestry, ''The Court of the Big Doll'' (1920) and his many posters. Enrico Prampolini pursued a programme of abstract and quasi-abstract painting, combined with a career in stage design. His ''Spatial-Landscape Construction'' (1919) is quasi-abstract with large flat areas in bold colours, predominantly red, orange, blue and dark green. His ''Simultaneous Landscape'' (1922) is totally abstract, with flat colours and no attempt to create perspective. In his ''Umbrian Landscape'' (1929), produced in the year of the Aeropainting Manifesto, Prampolini returns to figuration, representing the hills of Umbria. But by 1931 he had adopted "cosmic idealism", a biomorphic abstractionism quite different from the works of the previous decade, for example in ''Pilot of the Infinite'' (1931) and ''Biological Apparition'' (1940).

made a specifically Futurist contribution to landscape painting, which he frequently shows from an aerial viewpoint. Some of his landscapes appear to be more conventional than Futurist, e.g. his ''Hillside Landscape'' (1925). Others are dramatic and lyrical, e.g. ''The Miracle of Light'' (1931-2), which employs his characteristic high viewpoint over a schematised landscape with patches of brilliant colour and a non-naturalistic perspective reminiscent of pre-Renaissance painting; over the whole are three rainbows, in non-naturalistic colour. More typically Futurist is his major work, the ''Velocity Triptych'' of 1925. Dottori was one of the principal exponents of Futurist sacred art. His painting of ''St. Francis Dying at Porziuncola'' has a strong landscape element and a mystical intent conveyed by distortion, dramatic light and colour. Mural painting was embraced by the Futurists in the ''Manifesto of Mural Plasticism'' at a time when the revival of fresco painting was being debated in Italy. Dottori carried out many mural commissions including the ''Altro Mondo'' in Perugia (1927-8) and the hydroport at Ostia (1928).

, a self-taught painter, was a late adherent to Futurism, not joining until 1929. He is noted for his realistic aeropaintings, which combine "speed, aerial mechanisation and the mechanics of aerial warfare". His earliest aeropaintings represent military planes, ''Aerial Squadron'' and ''Aerial Duel'' (both 1929), in appearance little different from works by Prampolini or other Futurist painters. In the 1930s, his paintings became realistic, intending to communicate the experience of flight to the viewer. His best-known work, ''Nose Dive on the City'' (1939), shows an aerial dive from the pilot's point of view, the buildings below drawn in dizzying perspective. Crali continued to produce aero-themed paintings into the 1980s.

List of artists

* Fedele Azari *

Giacomo Balla Giacomo Balla (18 July 1871 – 1 March 1958) was an Italian painter, art teacher and poet best known as a key proponent of Futurism. In his paintings he depicted light, movement and speed. He was concerned with expressing movement in his works, ...

* "Barbara" * Uberto Bonetti *

* Giuseppe Caselli * Nino Costa *

* Giulio D'Anna *

* Mino Delle Site * Leandra Angelucci Cominazzini * Fillìa *

Sante Monachesi Sante Monachesi (1910–1991), was an Italian painter belonging to the modern movement of the ''Scuola romana (Roman School)'' and founder in 1932 of the ''Movimento Futurista nelle Marche (Futurist Movement of Marche)''. Life and career Mon ...

Marisa Mori Marisa Mori (March 9, 1900 – March 6, 1985) was an Italian painter and printmaking, printmaker. She was one of the few female artists in the Futurism movement. Early life and education Marisa Mori was born in Florence as Maria Luisa Lur ...

* Pippo Oriani * Osvaldo Peruzzihis paintin
''Air and Sea Battle''
(1939), was highlighted by the ''New York Times'' in their notable books of 2013 roundup, in which they mention the book, ''Art and the Second World War'', by Monica Bohm-Duchen * Ugo Pozzo * Enrico Prampolini * Aldo Righetti * Mino Rosso * Mino Somenzi *

Tato Tato (died 510) was an early 6th century king of the Lombards. He was the son of Claffo and a king of the Lething Dynasty. According to Procopius, the Lombards were subject and paid tribute to the Heruli during his reign. In 508, he fought with ...

References

{{Authority control . Futurist painting Italian art movements . 1930s paintings 1940s paintings Aviation art