An exhibition in Perugia to pay homage to Gerardo Dottori

In the year of the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of the birth of Gerardo Dottori, a leading exponent of the Futurist movement, the National Museums of Perugia - Regional Directorate National Museums Umbria is proposing, from October 13, 2024 to January 19, 2025, at the National Gallery ofUmbria in Perugia, a tribute to the artist to illustrate his artistic path, through selected works little known to the general public, curated by the Dottori Archives in the persons of Massimo Duranti, Andrea Baffoni, Francesca Duranti and with the collaboration of Beatrice Falcione.

In room thirty-nine, in which the permanent itinerary of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria currently concludes with an opening on the historicized twentieth century, on the occasion of the 20th Day of the Contemporary promoted by AMACI - Associazione Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiana, the GNU wants to initiate a series of in-depth studies dedicated to the movements and artists that marked the “short century.” The first protagonist of this new initiative is Gerardo Dottori, one of the personalities who dominated the art scene in Umbria in the first half of the century.

Through rarely exhibited works, mostly from private Italian collections, the Perugia exhibition traces all the languages tackled by the artist during his expressive itinerary: from pointillism-pointillisme, of the first decade of the 20th century, to the dynamism of the mechanical medium of the early 1910s, from the visual-auditory sensations of the mid-1910s to the aeropictorial developments of the early 1920s, to the early 1940s, a few years before the historical end of the Marinetti movement with the death in 1944 of its founder.

Among the works on display is Visione, from 1906, a work found in Milan in the early 1960s, the only one signed with the monogram of the artist’s initials. Made during Dottori’s stay in the Lombard capital, it reveals the influence of Divisionist painting by artists such as Giovanni Segantini and Gaetano Previati, particularly evident in the filamentous brushstroke technique.

Tied to the artist’s Futurist beginnings is Motociclista (Motorcyclist), from 1914, which depicts the theme of the dynamism of motor vehicles, influenced by a fascination with speed: the result is an effect in which the motorcyclist seems to be enveloped by the landscape. The work was exhibited at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia and donated with a dedication to Marinetti.

From the beginnings ofAeropittura, which has not been exhibited for decades, is Primavera umbra (Umbrian Spring), from 1923, where the view from above of Lake Trasimeno, with the Umbrian hills as a backdrop, ideally positions the viewer at the center of the scene, extending the perception of space and giving the painting a lyrical quality. Similar painting was present at the 1924 Venice Biennale to which Dottori, the first of the Futurists, was admitted to compete.

The exhibition aims to offer the public an in-depth understanding of the artist, enhanced also by the suggestion of a “Dottorian” itinerary in the Umbrian territory, which winds through the places that preserve the artist’s works, from the Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna in Perugia to Tuoro sul Trasimeno.

The exhibition will be enriched by a didactic apparatus, which will illustrate the scientific motivations behind the exhibition project, the artist’s biography, and the link with the territory, and by a small catalog, for the types of Silvana Editoriale.

Accompanying will be events (lectures, screenings, guided tours) aimed at further deepening the knowledge of Gerardo Dottori and to reveal unpublished or little-known aspects of him.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the National Gallery of Umbria.

An exhibition in Perugia to pay homage to Gerardo Dottori

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