(Innsbruck 1894–1965 Rome)
Dinamismo di un vaso di fiori n. 2, c. 1918, signed
R. M. Baldessari, signed on the reverse: Vaso di fiori-
R. M. Baldessari, oil on cardboard, 64.5 x 52 cm, framed

Photo certificate:
Archivio Unico per il catalogo delle Opere Futuriste di Roberto Marcello Baldessari, under the no. B18–27, Rovereto, 12/06/2003

Provenance:
Alfredo Hess Collection, Kron, Switzerland
Corti Collection, Varese
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibited:
Rome, Continuità del futurismo sud-nord, curated by Maurizio Scudiero and Anna Maria Ruta, M.I.C.R.O., February – March 2009, exh. cat., M.I.C.R.O. (ed.), p. 84 with ill.

Agrigento, Futurismo, curated by Maurizio Scudiero, Anna Maria Ruta and Francesco Catalano, Fabbriche Chiaromontane, April – June 2009, exh. cat., Amici della Pittura Siciliana dell’Ottocento (ed.), pp. 62-63 with ill.

It is around 1918 that the various references which Baldessari had collected in his albeit brief Futurist sojourn up until that point begin to consolidate, and thus come to define his signature style. This is unanimously recognised by academics who have focused on Baldessari, from Rinaldo Corti, who saw to the first brief monograph on Baldessari’s Futurist period in 1957, to Riccardo Maroni, who expanded on this in 1962, as well as Bruno Passamani and Enrico Crispolti, who curated two important retrospectives in 1967 and 1982 respectively.

In this subject, which appears to have little in common with Futurism, we find instead the pinnacle of Futurist expression.
This is visible first and foremost in the clarity of colour that Baldessari derived from the lessons of Beppe Ciardi, his teacher in Venice, who brought about that Baldessari became the only Futurist artist to paint with the glazing technique. Further elements are detectable in the “post-divisionist” brushstrokes that he saw in the Futurist and (from 1905 on) non-Futurist paintings that Boccioni exhibited at Ca’ Pesaro in Venice in 1910. Also visible is the masterly application of the precepts that Boccioni established in his book, “Pittura Scultura Futuriste – Dinamismo plastico” (Futurist Painting Sculpture – Plastic Dynamism) of 1914, which became like a bible for the young generations that drew closer to Futurism. This is manifest in the application of lines of force, interpenetrations, simultaneous vision, etc.

Thus, a simple vase of flowers becomes anexplosion of signs, colours, and volumes:
a kind of sculpture (plastic) moving in space (dynamic) that Baldessari is able to depict as a vibrant body even within the constraints of the immediate and limited perspective of two-dimensional painting. All this, combined with the chromaticism of the flowers, moves this painting closer to the other works created in 1918, which distinguishes itself as one of the top, most intense years in the adventure of this extraordinary artist.
Maurizio Scudiero

Photo certificate:
Archivio Unico per il catalogo delle Opere Futuriste di Roberto Marcello Baldessari, under the no. B18–27, Rovereto, 12/06/2003

Provenance:
Alfredo Hess Collection, Kron, Switzerland
Corti Collection, Varese
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibited:
Milan, R. M. Baldessari, opere futuriste 1914–1923, Galleria Arte Centro, October 2001, curated by Maurizio Scudiero, cat. p.37, no. 574 with ill.

It is around 1918 that the various references which Baldessari had collected in his albeit brief Futurist sojourn up until that point begin to consolidate, and thus come to define his signature style. This is unanimously recognised by academics who have focused on Baldessari, from Rinaldo Corti, who saw to the first brief monograph on Baldessari’s Futurist period in 1957, to Riccardo Maroni, who expanded on this in 1962, as well as Bruno Passamani and Enrico Crispolti, who curated two important retrospectives in 1967 and 1982 respectively.

In this subject, which appears to have little in common with Futurism, we find instead the pinnacle of Futurist expression.
This is visible first and foremost in the clarity of colour that Baldessari derived from the lessons of Beppe Ciardi, his teacher in Venice, who brought about that Baldessari became the only Futurist artist to paint with the glazing technique. Further elements are detectable in the “post-divisionist” brushstrokes that he saw in the Futurist and (from 1905 on) non-Futurist paintings that Boccioni exhibited at Ca’ Pesaro in Venice in 1910. Also visible is the masterly application of the precepts that Boccioni established in his book, “Pittura Scultura Futuriste – Dinamismo plastico” (Futurist Painting Sculpture – Plastic Dynamism) of 1914, which became like a bible for the young generations that drew closer to Futurism. This is manifest in the application of lines of force, interpenetrations, simultaneous vision, etc.

Thus, a simple vase of flowers becomes anexplosion of signs, colours, and volumes:
a kind of sculpture (plastic) moving in space (dynamic) that Baldessari is able to depict as a vibrant body even within the constraints of the immediate and limited perspective of two-dimensional painting. All this, combined with the chromaticism of the flowers, moves this painting closer to the other works created in 1918, which distinguishes itself as one of the top, most intense years in the adventure of this extraordinary artist.
Maurizio Scudiero