He gathers around him the artists interested in his project. Umberto Boccioni becomes the theoretician of the Futurist art. Art will no longer be realistic. Embracing dynamism and simultaneity, the new painting is a global expression of the world.
Unlike Balla who expresses the speed of the machines, Boccioni remains focused on the human figure. He discovers in Paris the cubism of Braque and Picasso of which he reuses the divisionism with many facets.
Painted by Boccioni in 1912, Testa + luce + ambiente is a great example of this new global art. The image is structured in areas that can be oblique mirrors in which the reflections of the head and of the light are everywhere and nowhere. This oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm is estimated £ 5.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 14.
In terms of graphic art, other avant-gardes around Duchamp, Léger or Kandinsky make similar advances. Mondrian will soon capture the whole universe on small canvases.
Boccioni's vision for sculpture is even more seminal. Based on portraits sculpted by Picasso, he promotes the overall effect against the realism of proportions and surfaces. In 1913 his running man titled Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio precedes by 34 years Giacometti's walking man with moreover an abstract vision of the human body that announces Henry Moore.
SOLD for £ 9M including premium
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's :
Rare Boccioni Futurist Painting at Sotheby’s in London https://t.co/gNq9SLwcsd pic.twitter.com/C5rsX70219
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) February 14, 2018