Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Musem Of Modern Art. While walking through different art galleries, I noticed a painting that instantly captured my eye. It was a painting by Umberto Boccioni called ” The City Rises”. Umberto Boccioni is an Italian painter who is best known for his contributions to the futurism movement. Boccioni is often credited as the leading artist during this movement, creating iconic paintings and sculptures that incorporate a lot of color and dynamism of modern life. Some of his iconic paintings include ” The City Rises”, “States of Mind I: The Farewells”, “The Morning”, etc.
Boccioni ” The City Rises ” was completed in 1910. The painting is on an oil medium canvas. “The City Rises ” exhibits futuristic and realistic elements containing manual labor, modern cities such as the suburbs and modern necessities. The painting centers around the vast progress of cities and the manual labor movement, whilst shining light upon technology, horses, and architecture. Boccioni himself stated that the painting is “a great synthesis of labor, light, and movement.”
” The City Rises ” showcases a lot of futurist elements that coincide with modernism. The painting itself brings forth different variation of modern ideas and dynamism such as the realistic portrayal of labor in society and technology as well as movements. Boccioni broke away from the traditional style of painting at the time and brought different styles such as cubism more colors and captures current and future advancement of society.
What first drew me to this painting was the pop of color. I thought the ray of colors stood out to me because he connected a lot of different colors and tied it in with different subjects in the painting such as the horses, people, building, etc. The colors overlapped with everything in the painting it made me focus on the painting as a whole and capture the true essence. What also grab my attention was the people in the painting. I stood by Boccioni painting for a long time trying to figure out what do the people represent and what was their purpose.
While trying to understand the painting, some questions had occurred that I was more-so curious about. What leads Boccioni to incorporate many district elements in his painting? and what was he inspired by ?
Earvina, I am not familiar with this painting, so I would love to know more about what is actually depicted in this scene. It’s hard to tell exactly what is on the canvas from your picture. I’m wondering if this is a result of the intense energy of the painting. You can tell that the artist has captured the movement and dynamic quality of the creation of the city. I’m wondering about the big red form. What is it? Why is it red? Is this some indication of violence?