''The City Rises'' (''La città che sale'') (1910) is a painting by the Italian painter Umberto Boccioni. It was his first major Futurist work.

Background

The original title of the

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

was ''Il lavoro'' (''Work''), as it appeared at the ''Mostra d'arte libera'' (Exhibition of free art) in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

in 1911. Though realistic elements are present, such as the building, and the space is still rendered through perspective, this painting is considered the first true futurist work by Umberto Boccioni, even though it is not markedly different from his several previous works centered on

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separa ...

. In this painting the naturalistic vision of the previous works is partly abandoned, replaced by a more dynamic vision.

Subject

Buildings in construction in a suburb can be seen with chimneys in the upper part, but most of the space is occupied by men and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, melted together in a dynamic effort. Boccioni thus emphasizes some of the most typical elements of futurism, the exaltation of human work and the importance of the modern town, built around modern necessities. The painting portrays the construction of a new city with developments and technology. Suburbs, and the urban environment in general, formed the basis of many of Boccioni's paintings, from the capture of the staccato sounds of construction in ''The Street-Pavers'' to the riot of sound and colour offered to the observer of street scenes, as typified by '' The Street Enters the House''.

Provenance

In 1912, the picture was bought by the musician

Ferruccio Busoni Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...

during the travelling

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

art exposition in Europe. It has been exhibited in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as part of their permanent collection.MoMA page
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:City Rises Paintings by Umberto Boccioni 1910 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City)