Gino Severini: Form

“.. displacement of bodies in [the] atmosphere [where] two persons form but one plastic unity, rhythmically balanced.”

Gino Severini

Quote from Severini's catalog entry for his exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in London in April 1913, reproduced in Archivi del Futurismo, Volume 1., eds. Maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori (Rome: De Luca, 1958-68. 2d 1986), p. 116
Severini explains in short the conception behind his painting 'The Bear Dance at the Moulin Rouge', 1913

Personality

“The metaphysical forms which compose our futurist pictures are the result of realities conceived and realities created entirely by the artist. These last are inspired by the emotion or intuition and dependent on atmosphere-ambience.”

Gino Severini

Quote of Severine 1913, from the opening paragraphs of his text 'Art du fantastique dans le sacre', as cited in Gino Severini Ecrits sur l'art, (1913-1962), with a preface by Serge Fauchereau, (Paris: Editions Cercle d'Art, 1987), p. 47
Severini opens 'Art du fantastique' with a theoretical explanation of the concept, form and content of a Futurist work

Reality , Dependency

“[the] circular rhythmic movement of a dancer, the folds of whose dress are held out by means of a hoop. These folds preserve their exterior form, modified in a uniform manner through the rotary movement. In order the better to convey the notion of relief, I have attempted to model the essential portions in a manner almost sculptural. Light and ambiance act simultaneously on the forms in movement.”

Gino Severini

from Severini's text, in the entry for the Marlborough Gallery exhibition; as cited by Daniela Fonti, Gino Severini Catalogo Ragionato, Milan: Edizione Phillipe Daverio, 1988, p. 130
Severine is describing here his painting 'Dancer at Pigalle' https://theartstack.com/artist/gino-severini-1/dancer-pigalle, 1912

Light

“this complex form of realism.... totally destroys the integrity of the subject-matter... The abstract colors and forms that we portray belong to Universe outside time and space.”

Gino Severini

In his manifesto 'The Plastic Analogies of Dynanism', c. 1914; as quoted in Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism, by Christine Poggi, Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 218

Color , Universe , Time

“It should also be born in mind that the research on 'movement' and the dynamic outlook on the world, which were the basis of Futurist theory, in no way required one to paint nothing but speeding cars or ballerinas in action; for a person who is seated, or an inanimate object, though apparently static, could be considered dynamically and suggest dynamic forms. I may mention as an example [his paintings] the 'Portrait of Madame S.”

Gino Severini

(1912) and the 'Seated Woman' (1914).
Source: The Life of a Painter - autobiography', 1946, Letters of the great artists', 1963, p. 248

World , Cars , Way , Painting

“The truth lies somewhere between these two aesthetics [static Cubism and dynamic Futurism]. The 'pure form' of w:Ingres led inevitably to a life-less Platonism; the lyricism and Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix no longer tailed with our cerebral and geometric age.... as in all great ages, today's artwork must be the synthesis of these two things”

Gino Severini

quote, 1917
In the 'Preface' of the exhibition catalogue, Photo Secession Gallery, New York, March 1917

Life , Truth , Age , Quotes