Osvaldo Peruzzi, the exhibition “Geometric Futurist Splendor”

In the year of the twentieth anniversary of Osvaldo Peruzzi’s disappearance, Fondazione Livorno hosts in its exhibition spaces the exhibition Futurist Geometric Splendor, curated by Massimo Duranti and Andrea Baffoni. The exhibition, visitable from October 25, 2024 to February 23, 2025, is part of a continuation of the path set up in 2023 at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome and includes about 100 works including paintings, drawings, correspondence, and documents.

With this exhibition, space is also dedicated to Peruzzi’s post-Futurist artistic production, that of the geometric exaltation of the urban and maritime scene of Livorno, portrayed with vibrant colors and sharp shapes. The works, with their bright colors and precise geometric scans, constitute an important piece of Fondazione Livorno’s permanent exhibition path and reveal the painter’s strong adherence to the Futurist Movement: from the aeropictorial beginnings of Aeropittura and Ideale cosmico (both from 1937) to the dark and shadowy atmosphere of the works created during his imprisonment at Weingarten Camp, from the exploration of seaside resorts to the rich graphic production of serigraphs and lithographs dedicated to maritime poles, landscapes of Livorno, and speedy Ferraris.

Osvaldo Peruzzi was born in Milan in 1907, but already the following year he moved to Livorno, where he spent his youth and obtained a diploma from the Technical Industrial Institute. He then returned to the Lombard capital to attend the Politecnico, graduating in Engineering in 1932. During those years, he interwove a rich correspondence with his colleague Armando Silvestri, drawing a series of postcards that constitute the artistic beginnings of the Livornese futurist, and he met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Enrico Prampolini, and Bruno Munari, whose artistic ideology he embraced. Thus, Peruzzi adhered to Futurism and in 1932 he inaugurated his first personal exhibition in the hall of Bar Taveggia, exhibiting thirteen pastels inspired by American cinema and jazz music.

Intellectually and artistically engaged with the Marinettian Movement, the painter immediately proved to be a curious and tireless artist, so much so that between the thirties and forties he participated in all the exhibitions, both in Italy and abroad. Aeropainting manifests itself in his language and in his poetics with original themes compared to Marinettian canons: he is inspired by Fillìa – pseudonym of the poet and painter Luigi Colombo – and Enrico Prampolini, but he is also fascinated by the poetic landscape of Gerardo Dottori and the cosmic idealism of Prampolini, evident above all in the Livornese repertoire. It was in 1941 that the artist declared the foundations of his poetics:

“…color + geometric splendor + simultaneity + interpenetration = plasticity of individual essence”

Osvaldo Peruzzi’s Futurism is based on the juxtaposition of brilliant colors and compact geometries, a true “geometric splendor” that, through the simultaneous representation of multiple actions, overcomes the fixity of the canvas itself.

While the artist learned and assimilated the futurist lesson in Milan, it is in Livorno, where he also carried out the intense activity of the family glassworks, that his artistic path unfolds. There are many paintings in which Peruzzi pays homage to the city of Livorno, portraying its places and symbolic and meaningful landmarks such as the Bagni Pancaldi, the Baracchina Rossa, the Madonna di Montenero… Works that testify to a tender and deep bond, without ever losing the peculiar dynamic impression, with all the suggestions aroused by “flight”, music, and cinema.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the precious collaboration of the artist’s heirs, custodians of some of the most significant works, of the Municipality of Livorno, Fondazione Primo Conti in Fiesole, State Archive of Milan, Archivi Dottori Cultural Association, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome, and the Department of Culture – Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage in Rome. The exhibition is also accompanied by a catalog edited by Gangemi Editore illustrating works, critical texts, and bio-bibliographic apparatus.

Opening weekend of the exhibition with guided tours free of charge

from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm

October 26-27, 2024

November 9-10, 2024

November 23-24, 2024

December 7-8, 2024

December 21-22, 2024

January 11-12, 2025

January 25-26, 2025

February 8-9, 2025

February 22-23, 2025

Visits from Monday to Friday by appointment

Diderot Cultural Services: tel. 339 8289470

For school visits contact Itinera Didactic Secretariat: tel. 0586 894563 | didattica@itinera.info