Roundtable Discussion: Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe at the Guggenheim

“Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe” is an exhibition curated by Vivien Greene for the Guggenheim in New York. The title embodies both the epic all-absorbing ambition of Futurism and its timescale from manifesto to Marinetti’s death.
The exhibition has the unquestionable bonus of being extremely informative and equally inclusive in its attempt to encourage the US public to appreciate an often neglected avant-garde. Although Futurist works have long been a part of American museum collections, this is the United States’ first comprehensive retrospective on this art movement. It is a well-assembled primer on an activity, illustrating all its historic phases and the artistic and ideological fields in which its protagonists moved, including the times of its explicit overtures to Fascism and art expressions of a lesser aesthetic impact.