Umberto Boccioni, Charge of the Lancers 1915When I was posting photos from my Italy trip last fall, I mentioned that I was anxious to see the futurists exhibited in the National Gallery of Modern art in Rome. This painting is an example of the style, though not part of that collection. It embodies a type of "action painting" long before the term was applied by Clement Greenberg to the abstract expressionists. I find the fluidity and coloring most engaging, and while there's a martial component that might normally put me off, it's offset by the collage element of the newspaper backdrop, conveying a sense of reportage (and history) as opposed to some kind of celebratory mythologizing. No doubt Boccioni was influenced by the cubists, but this work seems to hint at the coming revolution in cinematic montage with its dynamic thrust so evident on a static plane. Truly an exciting picture.
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