Letterhead for ‘Movimento Futurista.’

Milano (A. Taveggia [printer]), n.d.. Single sheet of lightweight cream wove stock, printed in bright orange on both sides. 295 x 233 mm. (ca. 11 9/16 x 9 3/16 inches). “Letterhead for ‘Movimento Futurista’ (1915), incorporating Balla’s drawing of his sculpture ‘Boccioni’s Fist-Lines of Force’ which he completed in the same year. The sculpture synthesizes in wood and carboard painted red the Futurist assault upon the past. The interpenetration of geometric forms concentrates the force emanating from the abstract portrait of Boccioni (1882-1916) and his fist. It is entirely appropriate that Marinetti adopted Balla’s drawing and made it central to the letterhead of the Futurist Movement. The drawing is surrounded by a text of Marinetti’s summarizing the ideological center of Futurism and is set off by Marinetti’s slogan ‘Run/Don’t Rot.’ Although little room is left at the bottom of the page for a message, Marinetti used the letterhead for quick notes and comment” (The Avant-Garde in Print). The verso of the sheet is taken up completely with the text “Ideologia del Futurismo e dei Movimenti che ne derivano,” with quick remarks about Dadaism, Purism, Surrealism, Vorticism, Expressionism, Constructivism and other vanguard movements, which presumably dates this example to a printing sometime in the 1920s. A very fine, fresh copy. (Inventory #: B105686-2)