Milan, a major exhibition in two venues presents an unprecedented dialogue between Futurism, Vorticism and Art Nouveau

From April 5 to September 3, 2023, the Museo del Novecento and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine in Milan in collaboration with Liberty and the publishing house Electa will host the exhibition FuturLiberty. Avant-Garde and Style, with scientific curatorship by Ester Coen and art direction by Federico Forquet for textiles.

The exhibition aims to delve into the vicissitudes of the Futurist movement in an unprecedented dialogue between painting and applied arts in the two venues of the Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art Area of the City of Milan. The works of the protagonists of the Futurist movement, including Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Fortunato Depero will be placed in dialogue with the Vorticist paintings of coeval Englishmen, such as Percy Wyndham Lewis and Christopher Nevinson, starting with the 1914 Vital English Art manifesto signed by the “caffeine of Europe,” Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. These artists were, in turn, the source of inspiration that guided Federico Forquet and the Liberty design team in the creation of two new collections.

The inspirational avant-gardes of Futurism and Vorticism express a break with the past through a sharp look into the future, influencing the culture that is expressed in costume and all forms of everyday life. Strength, energy, and dynamism are elements that reflect the vitality of the forms that in different eras accompanied the creative impetus of Liberty’s designers.

More than two hundred works will be on display at two venues. At the Museo del Novecento, the exhibition will focus on theinterdisciplinary nature of avant-garde movements. An unprecedented and fascinating journey in eight sections through Futurism and Vorticism with key works from the collection of the Museo del Novecento, including fifteen by important artists such as Boccioni, Balla, Severini and Carrà, along with other loans from prestigious Italian and international institutions, including the MART in Rovereto, GAM in Turin, Bank of Italy, Tate, British Council, Estorick Collection, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, William Morris Gallery in London, and Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, set against designs from the Art Nouveau collections.

An in-depth look will also be devoted to Milan’s Art Nouveau architecture with projected images of the city’s “in style” buildings. An itinerary that places architecture and decorations side by side with designs from the prestigious London archive, with the aim of emphasizing the stylistic influence of floral and geometric motifs in a close link between the two cities.

Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine will instead focus attention on the extraordinary creativity that characterizes the history of Liberty and its designers of yesterday and today. For the first time since the exhibition at the V&A in 1975 celebrating its centenary, paintings, drawings, tapestries, fabrics, clothes, furniture, photographs and a wide selection of previously unpublished materials from the Liberty archive, starting with the collaboration with William Morris, will be on display in eight rooms.

The exhibition will illustrate the influences that shaped the path of some masters, such as William Morris, Bernard Nevill, and Federico Forquet, and the ideas, which in different eras reshaped the future by looking to the past. The fabric connects the beginning and the end of the journey through shapes, colors, patterns and refractions of light.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a guide to the exhibition route at the Museo del Novecento and Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine, published by Electa, edited by Ester Coen.

Milan, a major exhibition in two venues presents an unprecedented dialogue between Futurism, Vorticism and Art Nouveau

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