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Critical introduction essay of Ruggero Vasari, Raun, Translated by Brendan and Anna Connel and with an introduction by Maria Elena Versari, Snuggly Books, UK 2023. From the publishing house: Raun, certainly one of the great works of... more
Critical introduction essay of Ruggero Vasari, Raun, Translated by Brendan and Anna Connel and with an introduction by Maria Elena Versari, Snuggly Books, UK 2023.

From the publishing house:
Raun, certainly one of the great works of Futurist drama, if not the greatest, was written by Ruggero Vasari from 1926 to 1927 before being published in 1932. Here, presented in English for the first time in a translation by Brendan and Anna Connell, and with an introduction by Maria Elena Versari, is a dystopian masterpiece that is as relevant today as it was when it was originally composed. Rivaling, in its own way, the plays of Aeschylus and Euripides, Raun is a fully-equipped tragedy in which, in the Era of Machines, eugenics are used to dehumanize a society obsessed with technical achievement and which is willing to sacrifice all in order to reach ever more exalted heights.
https://ro-ro.facebook.com/SnugglyBooks/
(catalogue of the exhibition, contains the essay "Archipenko and the Italian Avant-Garde, or the Meandering Paths of Influence", pp. 6-17), Estorick Foundation, London 2022.
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Texts: Maria Elena Versari; Translation: Richard Shane Agin; Introduction: Frances Archipenko Gray
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Coleção Grandes Mestres, Editora Abril Coleções, São Paulo 2011.
ML Fine Art, Milan 14 September - 12 December 2021
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Mostra documentaria e interattiva
TMUB - Temporary Museum Umberto Boccioni, Morciano di Romagna
19 Ottobre - 31 Dicembre 2022
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A documentary and Interactive Exhibition
TMUB - Temporary Museum Umberto Boccioni, Morciano di Romagna
19 October - 31 December 2022
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Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
4 May - 4 September 2022
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http://www.spaziindecisi.it/totally-lost-2016/ Totally lost is an open photographic and video research project that discovers, surveys and maps abandoned architectural heritage sites linked to the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century... more
http://www.spaziindecisi.it/totally-lost-2016/

Totally lost is an open photographic and video research project that discovers, surveys and maps abandoned architectural heritage sites linked to the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century in Europe. Photographers, video makers and urban explorers have been invited to contribute to the evolving documentation of desolate buildings, in order to generate discussion and bring attention to the form of each historic structure.
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in "Arte e Fascismo", exh. catalogue, Mart, Rovereto, 14 April 2024 - 1 September 2024, conc. by V. Sgarbi, ed. by Beatrice Avanzi and Daniela Ferrari, L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome-Bristol 2024, pp. 63-75.
in "Medardo Rosso. Pioneer of Modern sculpture", catalogue of the exhibition (Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, 22 September 2023- 7January 2024), Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, 2023. [Bozze testo in inglese]
in "Sintesi astratta. Espansioni e risonanze dell'arte astratta in Italia, 1930-1960" a cura di Stefano Setti, Electa, Milano 2022, pp. 26-40.
in "Scintille Futuriste. Storia del Futurismo a Cremona", a cura di Guido Andrea Pautasso, Silvia Locatelli, Franco Moschi, Edizioni Scintille, 2023, pp. 9-15.
in "Dante. Il più italiano dei poeti, il più poeta degli italiani", a cura di Franco Moschi e Piero Casavecchia, Minerva, Argelato(Bo), pp. 64-70.
in "Dante. Il più italiano dei poeti, il più poeta degli italiani", a cura di Franco Moschi e Piero Casavecchia, Minerva, Argelato (Bo) 2021, pp. 32-37.
in "Futurism & Europe. The Aesthetics of a New World", edited by Fabio Benzi and Renske Cohen Tervaert, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo - Yale University Press, New Have and London, 2023, pp. 32-39.
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in "Futurism & Europe. The Aesthetics of a New World", edited by Fabio Benzi and Renske Cohen Tervaert, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo - Yale University Press, New Have and London, 2023, pp. 246-249.
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in "Italian Modern Art", Medardo Rosso, Issue 6, December 2021
https://www.italianmodernart.org/journal/issues/medardo-rosso/
in "Boccioni no Brasil/Boccioni in Brazil. Reassessing Unique Forms of Continuity in Space and its material history", ed. by Ana Gonçalves Magalhães and Rosalind McKeever, Edusp/MAC, São Paulo 2022, pp. 103-146.
in Futurismo a Nizza: La mostra ritrovata (1934), ed. by Rossella Lorenzi, Barbara Meazzi and Serge Lorenzo Milan, Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont
Catalogue of the International exhibition of modern and contemporary art "La forma dell'infinito", ed. Alessio Geretti, Casa Cavazzini - Udine, 16 October 2021 - 27 March 2022, Illegio, Tolmezzo UD 2021
Maria Elena Versari, “Picasso/Boccioni in Perspective”,
Actes du Colloque Picasso Sculpture, ed. by Virginie Perdrisot et Cécile Godefroy, 25 mars 2016, Musée National Picasso, Paris.
(online: https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/ )
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in "Fascismo e società italiana. Temi e parole-chiave" a cura di Carlo De Maria
Bologna (BraDypUS) 2016, pp. 127-144
ISBN 978-88-98392-48-3
in "Fascismo e società italiana. Temi e parole-chiave", a cura di Carlo De Maria
Bologna (BraDypUS) 2016, pp. 241-256
ISBN 978-88-98392-48-3
Italian Modern Art, n. 4, July 2020
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in Word & Image, vo. 34, n. 3, 2018, pp. 251-267.
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in The Voice of Light. Delaunay, Apollinaire and Orphism, exhibition catalogue, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, 2017.
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in "L’Italia nella Grande Duerra. Nuove ricerche e bilanci storiografici," ed. by Carlo De Maria, BraDyPus, Rome 2017, pp. 101-112.
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in "Biografie, percorsi e networks nell'Età contemporanea. Un approccio transnazionale tra ricerca, didattica e Public History," ed. by Eloisa Betti and Carlo De Maria, BraDypUS Communicating Cultural Heritage, Rome 2018, pp. 37-52
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in "Clionet. Rivista di Public History", 1/2017.
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in "Enrico Prampolini. Futurism, Stage Design and the Polish Avant-Garde Theatre," exhibition catalogue edited by Przemyslaw Strozek, (Lodz: Museum Sztuki, June 2017).
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in "International Yearbook of Futurism Studies," vol. 8, 2018, pp. 245-269.
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in "Jules Schmalzigaug. Futurist, 1882-1917," exhibition catalogue edited by Phillip Van den Bossche and Adriaan Gonnissen (Ostend: Mu.ZEE): 212-229.
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in the proceedings from the congress "Picasso. Sculptures," Musée national Picasso, Paris, 24-26 March 2016
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in "Futurism: a Microhistory," ed. by Luca Somigli, Sascha Bru and Bart Van Den Bossche (Oxford: Legenda, publishing: expected end 2017).
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in "The Voice of Light. Delaunay, Apollinaire and Orphism", exhibition catalogue (Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen) (printing, expected December 2017).
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in Annali di Italianistica, 33 (2015), pp. 187-204.
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This essay reconstructs the micro-history of some of the most influential examples of Futurist sculpture. It retraces the fate of Umberto Boccioni’s plaster sculptures and clarifies the context in which the bronze copies now in major... more
This essay reconstructs the micro-history of some of the most influential examples of Futurist sculpture. It retraces the fate of Umberto Boccioni’s plaster sculptures and clarifies the context in which the bronze copies now in major international museums have been conceived, realized and interpreted over the years. It also reveals which technical specificities and theoretical models determined in the 1960s the fate and fortune of the sculptures by another major Futurist artist, Giacomo Balla.
The article announces the rediscovery of a series of objects that were part of Mussolini’s own collection of propaganda art, seized by the Italian authorities after WW2. They were originally held in Mussolini's hilltop retreat near his... more
The article announces the rediscovery of a series of objects that were part of Mussolini’s own collection of propaganda art, seized by the Italian authorities after WW2. They were originally held in Mussolini's hilltop retreat near his hometown of Predappio, the small fortress of the Rocca delle Caminate, and in the nearby Villa Carpena located on the outskirts of the city of Forlì. They were found in the storage room of the Archivio di Stato of Forlì and the author was able to identify them on the basis of unpublished documents from the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome.
In 1921, Marc Bloch published an essay entitled 'Reflections of an historian оп the fake news under the war', in which he justified his interest in that somewhat unusual subject: 'Our ancestors did not quibble оуег these sorts of things,... more
In 1921, Marc Bloch published an essay entitled 'Reflections of an historian оп the fake news under the war', in which he justified his interest in that somewhat unusual subject: 'Our ancestors did not quibble оуег these sorts of things, they rejected епог, when they recognized it as such, and they were not concerned аЬош its repercussions. That's why the information they left us doesn't allow us to satisfy our curiosity, which is of по interest tо them' (Bloch 1999: 14). What I propose to examine in this chapter аге the traces of а wide апау of interpretations and misinrerpretations that
Futurism triggered in Germany, and the effect they had оп defining а new model of avant-garde practice.
Ruggero Vasari was a vital figure in the history of Futurism and played a key role in the movement’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe. The specific interplay between his artistic identity as an Italian Futurist on one hand and... more
Ruggero Vasari was a vital figure in the history of Futurism and played a key role in the movement’s relations with Central and Eastern Europe. The specific interplay between his artistic identity as an Italian Futurist on one hand and his predominantly European professional contacts and career on the other offers a symptomatic ensemble of elements that might help the historian when reassessing theoretical definitions of the avant-garde and its international modes of operation. This essay attempts to offer a more exacting explanation of what were the coordinates of Futurism at play
in these international settings and in Vasari’s work itself. In this sense, it analyses the international alliances which he established in the1920s with several artists and intellectuals in the German capital at the time, such as Ivan Puni, Karlis Zale, Viktor Shklovsky and Viking Eggeling. It retraces the way in which Vasari’s conception of radical art and his attitude of stylistic ecumenism succeeded in attracting to Futurism artists who, often as a result of their condition as political exiles, rejected the more overtly politicized tenets of Constructivism. It concludes by outlining the repercussions that this large avant-garde network had on the fate of Vasari’s own activity as a dramatist.
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While several studies have offered re-evaluations of Umberto Boccioni's sculptures and sculptural theories, scholars have generally failed to address systematically the specificities of the formal and technical choices that the Futurist... more
While several studies have offered re-evaluations of Umberto Boccioni's sculptures and sculptural theories, scholars have generally failed to address systematically the specificities of the formal and technical choices that the Futurist artist made in his overall sculptural practice. This critical attitude (or lack thereof) is partly sustained by the general assumption that Boccioni's sculptures represent a coherent projection not only of his Futurist theories of art but also of his work in painting. Challenging this belief, the present article aims to reassess the role and function of Boccioni's use of plaster and plaster casts in the framework of his evolving sculptural practice and to highlight the contradictions and challenges that these works created within Futurist aesthetics.
This chapter addresses the theoretical and ideological development of the so-called ‘machine art’, which was outlined in 1922 in a homonymous manifesto by the painters Ivo Pannaggi and Vinicio Paladini and launched later that year in a... more
This chapter addresses the theoretical and ideological development of the
so-called ‘machine art’, which was outlined in 1922 in a homonymous manifesto by the painters Ivo Pannaggi and Vinicio Paladini and launched later that year in a revised version signed by Enrico Prampolini. While scholars have largely tackled the thematic specificity and visual impact of this text within the general development of Italian Futurist art in the course of the 1920s, they have failed to take up the issue of its specific place in the ongoing construction of the European artistic framework of the 1920s. This essay aims to redefine the history of the concept of Futurist machine art from a different perspective, by highlighting its complex and contradictory relations with contemporary artistic practices in Europe and with the emergence of Constructivism.
Lezione nell'ambito del Dottorato di ricerca UMANESIMO E TECNOLOGIE (U&T)
Università degli Studi di Macerata
Giovedì 6 luglio 2023, ore 10-12
In presenza: Aula Virgilio (M)
Palazzo Ugolini | Corso Cavour, 2 MACERATA
Università Ca' Foscari, Venezia
Dipartimento di Studi sull'Asia e sull'Africa Mediterranea
Giovedì 24 novembre 2022, ore 12.30-13.45
Aula Gradoni, Santa Marta
7 giugno, ore 11, Biblioteca Statale di Cremona, con Federico Zanoner e Guido Andrea Pautasso
Evento in margine alla mostra "Scintille Futuriste"
Avant-gardes et réversions Colloque international 11-12-13 octobre 2018 Nice Musée Matisse -Campus Carlone IDEX Program RAG : ANR-15-IDEX-01 Il mio intervento si propone di analizzare la questione della materialità delle opere futuriste... more
Avant-gardes et réversions Colloque international 11-12-13 octobre 2018 Nice Musée Matisse -Campus Carlone IDEX Program RAG : ANR-15-IDEX-01


Il mio intervento si propone di analizzare la questione della materialità delle opere futuriste e in particolare di diversi lavori di Boccioni, Balla e Prampolini nel contesto del rinnovato interesse verso le avanguardie negli anni Sessanta. È questo un periodo in cui assistiamo a un diretto coinvolgimento degli artisti contemporanei e delle gallerie d’arte nello studio e nella promozione delle opere futuriste. È anche un momento in cui il problema della conservazione delle opere originali della prima parte del secolo si intreccia a nuove formulazioni di diffusione che portano alla ribalta il problema del mercato e dell’unicità della produzione creativa. Significativo in questo frangente è in particolare il lavoro svolto dall’artista Elio Marchegiani sulla produzione di Giacomo Balla. Analizzando diversi esempi di ricontestualizzazione museale, ricostruzione di opere perdute e creazione di copie commerciali, questa comunicazione si propone di offrire una nuova interpretazione del rapporto tra avanguardia storica e neo-avanguardia, del ruolo centrale che la questione della materialità gioca al suo interno.
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2nd Annual Conference of the AIPH – Italian Association of Public History, Pisa, Italy, 5-9 June 2018
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Seminário Internacional "O Dilema de Boccioni: em busca de sua obra escultórica"/International Conference "Boccioni’s Dilemma: In Search of his Sculptural Oeuvre". September 27 and 28, 2018 Auditório Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP,... more
Seminário Internacional "O Dilema de Boccioni: em busca de sua obra escultórica"/International Conference
"Boccioni’s Dilemma: In Search of his Sculptural Oeuvre".
September 27 and 28, 2018
Auditório Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP, Sao Paulo, Brasil
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European Postwar and Contemporary Art Forum (EPCAF)

CAA 106th Annual Conference
Los Angeles, February 21–24, 2018
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Colloque international "Picasso. Sculptures," Musée national Picasso-Paris, 25 mars 2016
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Forlì, Istituto Storico della Resistenza e dell'Età Contemporanea, December 12th, 2015
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paper presented at the 103rd Annual College Art Association (CAA) Conference, New York, 11-14 February 2015.
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paper presented at the conference "The Art Market Past and Present: Lessons for the Future?," organized by Sotheby’s and The Burlington Magazine, London, 31 October-1 November, 2014.
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Invited Lecture, University of Kansas, Department of French and Italian, October 3rd, 2014.
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"Visualising War: The Iconography of Conflict and the Italian Nation", Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna-The British School at Rome, Rome, 18-19 September 2014
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"Locating Expressionism", LACMA, Los Angeles, September 6-7, 2014
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paper presented at Material Meanings. Third Biannual conference of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM), University of Kent, Canterbury, September 7-9, 2012.
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paper presented at ARCA's Third Annual Conference, Amelia, Umbria, 9- 10 July, 2011.

http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/07/maria-elena-versari-on-iconoclasm-by.html
paper presented at Moving in Three Dimensions. A Conference on Sculpture and Change, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, May 11-12 2012.
Paper presented on June 12th, 2022 at the "Vigeland Seminar: Boundaries or no Boundaries – Sculpture in the Intersection between Nationalism and Internationalism" (12 and 13 June 2023, Sentralen, Øvre Slottsgate 3, Oslo, Norway) Abstract:... more
Paper presented on June 12th, 2022 at the "Vigeland Seminar: Boundaries or no Boundaries – Sculpture in the Intersection between Nationalism and Internationalism" (12 and 13 June 2023, Sentralen, Øvre Slottsgate 3, Oslo, Norway)
Abstract:
For scholars of modern sculpture and Italian art, it comes as a surprise to discover that there exist no monographic studies devoted specifically to the history of Futurist sculpture.  While Umberto Boccioni’s singular achievements in the field are renowned, almost no critical attention has been paid to the definition of Futurist sculpture per se throughout the life of the movement.  The reasons for this are varied, but I would suggest that they derive chiefly from the interplay of two different issues: first, the specific function that sculpture played in Fascist Italy in terms of both its stylistic definition of a national language and its central role in State-sponsored decorative enterprises; and second, the problematic status of Futurism itself in the late 1920s and 1930s and its incapacity to create a distinct style. I could say “incapacity” but the term could also be “unwillingness” and we’ll see how we could address these two alternative interpretations.
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Paper presented on June 12th, 2022 at the "Vigeland Seminar: Boundaries or no Boundaries – Sculpture in the Intersection between Nationalism and Internationalism" (12 and 13 June 2023, Sentralen, Øvre Slottsgate 3, Oslo, Norway)... more
Paper presented on June 12th, 2022 at the "Vigeland Seminar: Boundaries or no Boundaries – Sculpture in the Intersection between Nationalism and Internationalism" (12 and 13 June 2023, Sentralen, Øvre Slottsgate 3, Oslo, Norway)
Abstract:
For scholars of modern sculpture and Italian art, it comes as a surprise to discover that there exist no monographic studies devoted specifically to the history of Futurist sculpture.  While Umberto Boccioni’s singular achievements in the field are renowned, almost no critical attention has been paid to the definition of Futurist sculpture per se throughout the life of the movement.  The reasons for this are varied, but I would suggest that they derive chiefly from the interplay of two different issues: first, the specific function that sculpture played in Fascist Italy in terms of both its stylistic definition of a national language and its central role in State-sponsored decorative enterprises; and second, the problematic status of Futurism itself in the late 1920s and 1930s and its incapacity to create a distinct style. I could say “incapacity” but the term could also be “unwillingness” and we’ll see how we could address these two alternative interpretations.
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paper presented at the congress "Materiali e tecniche tra Futurismo e Ritorno al Classico. Ricerche, analisi, prospettive," Pisa 20-21 giugno 2016.
in "Visualizzare la guerra: l'iconografia del conflitto e l'Italia" a cura di Simona Storchi e Giuliana Pieri (in corso di pubblicazione)
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The events that swept Europe in 1968 have, without fail, occasioned successive waves of commemoration and contestation as subsequent generations struggle to articulate their significance under changing historical circumstances. While... more
The events that swept Europe in 1968 have, without fail, occasioned successive waves of commemoration and contestation as subsequent generations struggle to articulate their significance under changing historical circumstances. While scholars have begun to look beyond a narrow focus on the student revolts to highlight immigrant perspectives, issues of gender and sexuality, third-world liberation struggles, relations to labor movements, and developments outside of urban centers, art historians have been slow to enter into these debates. On the fiftieth anniversary of these events, this panel seeks to respond to this ongoing reassessment of '68 and its aftermath and to reexamine its legacy within art history. Which artistic currents embodied the protest ethos and political commitments of the time? What were the immediate and long-term effects of artists' engagement with artistic institutions? How were the very categories of " art " and " politics " redefined? And how useful are these positions and formulations today, in light of the political climate in Europe and beyond? We welcome papers devoted to artistic interventions that took place in connection with the events of '68 or unfolded in their immediate aftermath. In particular, we seek papers that address these questions from trans-European and global perspectives by focusing on moments of exchange and transmission or by considering gestures with significant repercussions outside their strict geographical boundaries. We also invite papers that rethink the artistic legacy of this period from the perspective of contemporary movements, from Nuit debout to Occupy Wall Street, to reframe the debate about art and political engagement. The deadline for submissions is August 14, 2017.
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