NisN IRL : Depero Futurista

December 9, 2009
1930s, Artists, Books, Designers, Europe

P1030726-web

P1030728-web

P1030729-web

P1030730-web

P1030732-web

P1030733-web

P1030736-web

IRL (in real life) at the Wolfsonian Library this Monday I was turned on to Depero Futurista. A book created by Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in honor of his colleaugue & friend Forunato Depero. A total inspiration! Please excuse my wonky photographs—I got too excited. A big thanks to librarian Frank Luca for pulling this book for me to review.

Comments

6 Responses to “NisN IRL : Depero Futurista”

  1. Hi,

    i just saw your post and thought you might be interested in a project that I am currently a part of for a team at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. We have been completely inspired by Fortunato Depero, and have re-imagined his 1918 puppetry ballet, Balli Plastici, for the digital age.

    Please take a look at our website, and let me know if you have any questions about the project.

    Long live Futurism!

  2. KellyR

    Cory, your puppets are totally amazing. You interpret Depero so perfectly, colorfully! I think he’d be proud. Futurist would love technology, right?

  3. Thanks so much, Kelly! I do think that the Futurists would love today’s technology – reading through Depero’s work for this project, I found that he had ideas that were not really possible to bring to fruition using the tech of his day. He was ahead of his time, for sure.

    He was also playful in his work. I’m glad you like the color palette we used – after visiting his home and archives in Rovereto, we (a team of 7 graduate students) were inspired by his sense of whimsy. The colors we used were meant to highlight that aspect, as well as his theatrical sensibilities.

  4. Thanks for showing us this. Futurism is all about the vectors, the lines of force, everything jumping off the page…

  5. “Depero Futurista” was not created by Filippo Marinetti. Depero designed and published the book himself. According to “Meggs’ History of Graphic Design”, “In 1927 Depero published his ‘Depero Futurista’, a compilation of his typographical experiments, advertisements, tapestry designs, and other works. ‘Depero Futurista’ is a precursor of the artist’s book, published by an artist as a creative expression independent of the publishing establishment.”

    Also, this link below provides more information on Depero and his bolted book:
    http://english.mart.trento.it/gallery.jsp?ID_LINK=96&area=42&page=1&id_context=108

Leave a Reply