\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \ATXsh255 Italian painter and sculptor.\par
A student at the Libera Scuola di Nudo in Rome from 1899, Umberto Boccioni frequented the
studio of Umberto Balla over the same period. Balla stimulated the young artistÆs interest in French painting and Divisionism, as well as the Symbolism of Giulio Aristide Sartorio. In 1906, suffocated by the narrow-mindedness of Italian culture, Boccion
i set off on a journey through Europe that took him to Paris, Russia and Vienna. On his return to Italy, the artist moved to Milan, a lively and stimulating city where he worked as an illustrator for several magazines. Sensitive to the problems of space
and light, the painter seems to have been interested in representing industrial society and investigating the mood and psychology of the people whose portraits he painted. Outstanding among these are the self-portrait of 1908 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan)
and the portrait of his mother (1907, Galleria dÆArte Moderna, Milan). A fundamental turning point came in 1909, with his meeting with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and subsequent adhesion to the Futurist movement. Boccioni was one of the signatories of the
\i Technical Manifesto of Painting\i0 . Rejecting the past, Boccioni glorified progress, technology, speed and the industrial city, all themes which appear in \i The City Rises\i0 , painted in 1910 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). The artist continued
to investigate the problems of space, working on the interpenetration of planes and the dynamism of figures. This research found expression in works like \i The Laugh\i0 (Museum of Modern Art, New York) and three pictures representing \i Moods\i0 (Gall
eria dÆArte Moderna, Milan). At the same time Boccioni devoted himself to sculpture, realizing the \i Unique Forms of Continuity in Space\i0 (Galleria dÆArte Moderna, Milan) in 1913. Boccioni alternated his activity as an artist with theoretical work, p
ublishing the \i Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture\i0 in 1912. Called up to fight in the war, the artist met a premature death in Verona in 1916.
