Umberto Boccioni, an Italian painter, shaped the futurist movement during the 1900s as one of the principle characters. When walking around Boccioni’s exhibition, a change could be seen directly in his works of art. As time passed over the years he started going from more realistic paintings to creating more of an abstract pieces. During the early 20th century, art is still in the realm of Divisionism. With focus more on light and color, paintings could be discovered following this concept. Using Divisionist techniques, Giacomo Balla leads Boccioni and other artists to follow this trend. With Balla’s teaching, Boccioni creates a masterpiece called La signora Virginia in 1905. When seeing this painting at the exhibition, the colors and the realistic feeling that I was getting by just looking at it awed me. Divisionist technique is described as a painting with divided colors rather than mixed. In this painting, just this type of technique can be observed. The white color of the bed in the background is separated by the blue and green color of the woman’s clothing. Also, the cream color of the sofa is separated from the blue-green color of the wall. Lastly, the yellow and orange color tiles are also separated from each other. By following this technique, the overall painting is made to look more realistic. Even the facial expression on the woman’s face gives off a subtle yet expressive tone. Later around 1910, Boccioni starts experimenting with shapes and geometry. Passing Divisionism and entering the era of Futurism, Boccioni along with other artists started creating more of a modern art. Speed and dynamics is their motto in creating modern yet heroic images. This type of modern art can be seen when Boccioni creates an abstract piece called Dinamismo di una testa di donna in 1914. From creating realistic pieces before 1910 to designing abstract paintings in 1914, an effect of futurism can be seen. When looking at this abstract masterpiece of Boccioni, a loss of divisionism can be sighted. Additionally, loss of definite lines, shape of the face, eyes, mouth, nose can be easily discovered. Furthermore, the medium of this art piece is also mix media with tempera and collage on canvas. With this type of media, one can tell that Boccioni was experimenting new techniques in this futurist era. When I looked at this art piece, it was hard to tell exactly the type of emotion Boccioni was trying to portray on the woman’s face. Without focusing more on the emotions, the artist instead focuses on the technique to signify the movement that artists of modern society were moving towards.
