N. 29 - Capri

Due opere di Fortunato Depero
realizzate durante il soggiorno caprese.
Sopra, “La grande selvaggia”
e, a sinistra, “Paese di tarantelle”.
Two works by Fortunato Depero painted during
his stay on Capri: (above) “La grande selvaggia”
and (left) “Paese di tarantelle”.
100 YEARS OF FUTURISM
by Camilla Contini
The first Italian avant-garde
movement is a hundred years
old. Founded by Marinetti in
1909, its popularity spread
rapidly, enthusing Capri, too,
with exhibitions, conferences and
themed evenings
The Futurist Manifesto, written by Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti, was published in
Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. It was
the start of an artistic movement that was to
revolutionize literature, architecture, the figurative
arts, music and even the art of cooking.
At the end of the second decade of the
twentieth century, the rushing wind of avantgarde
brought the futurist storm to Capri, after
sweeping through not only Milan and Rome,
but also Naples and the South.
It was Fortunato Depero and Enrico Prampolini,
above all, who lit the fuse of futurism on Capri,
but the island would also play host to Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti and the poet Cangiullo.
Depero first came to Capri in 1917, invited by
his friend, the poet Gilbert Clavel. The artist’s
eyes opened onto a new world. “The red of
the geraniums is on the walls of the houses;
the blue of the sky is inlaid in the floors; the
daisy blooms are as big as mulberry trees; the
cacti have a hundred sides: look at them, but
don’t touch. From morning to night you feel
intoxicated with enchantment and you dream
with your eyes open.” It was a dream that
produced extraordinary results: fascinated by
the colours and Mediterranean light, Depero
set to work with renewed intensity, producing
not only famous paintings such as Clavel sulla
funicolare but also new cloth tapestries which
soon became his own particular brand of work.
The inspirations from that “iridescent palette”
soon bore fruit, and the first results were brought
together in a personal exhibition mounted in
September 1917 at the Sala Morgano.
The island again became part of the futurist
scene in 1922 with the arrival of Marinetti
and Cangiullo. They, together with Enrico
Prampolini, Alfredo Casella and Benedetta
Cappa (Marinetti’s wife), were the protagonists
of the second season of Capri futurism.
The small group fell in love with this
“seductive rock”, to which Cangiullo dedicated
vibrant and passionate verses such as this
one: “You dream of her at night, Capri in
your marine blue dreams, evanescent as
the expression flitting across the face of an
exotic blonde …”. Marinetti, for his part,
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