Mario Sironi (May 12, 1885 – August 13, 1961)

                                                                                             

Futurist Head

1913 

Sironi was a grand follower of Futurism, who produced some of the most somber works of the movement, echoing his own human condition, which from his early years often dipped into deep depressions. During the rise of Mussolini, Sironi was a strong supporter of the dictator and Fascism, so, with little surprise, following the end of World War II, Sironi's reputation was mostly destroyed, sending him into obscurity for the rest of his life. In his later years, he produced wonderful Expressionist pieces, whose reputations are smaller than what is due to them. 

Portrait of Brother Ettore

1910

Composition (San Martino)

1930

The Truck

1914-1915

Model

1958 

Cyclist

1916-1920 

The Family

1933-1934

Ballerina

1918-1919

Self-Portrait

1910-1911

Gino Severini (April 7, 1883 – February 26, 1966)

                                                                                        

The Dance of the Pan Pan at the Monico

1911

Severini was one of the main figures in Futurism, both in terms of output and theory. Often the focus of his paintings was dancers, but there was not much formulation in their depiction, which has left us with a variety of wonderfully amusing depictions. And Severini worked in a number of styles, including in Pointillism, featured here. I can't seem to express my enthusiasm for Severini well enough, and I don't know how to remedy the fault. What can I say about him to do his art justice? Perhaps I should say that when I look at his works I most acutely feel the world of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms; but is that enough?

Dancer

1913 

Dancer

1915-1916

Dancer

1915

Spring in Montmartre

1909

Blue Dancer

1912

Armored Train

1915

The Black Cat

1911

Carlo Carrà (February 11, 1881 – April 13, 1966)

                                                                                              

Funeral of the Anarchist Galli

1911

Carrà was one of the leading futurists, who, as many did, experimented a bit with movement in his paintings, but excelled in his depictions of lights, which to an extent mimic the light-play of the Impressionists, especially Monet; but Carrà, unlike the Impressionists, was attempting to describe the movement of light. As you can tell from the paintings here, Carrà played with other aspects of Futurism, as well as Tonalism and Primitivism. Beautiful works, wouldn't you say?

Evening at the Lake

1924

The Child Prodigy

1914

Swimmers

1910

Piazza Beccaria Milan at Night

1910

The Wait

1926

Portrait of Marinetti

1910-1911

Leaving the Theater

1909 

Kazimir Malevich (February 23, 1879 – May 15, 1935)

                                                                                              

Self-Portrait

1911

Malevich was a massively prolific painter, whose various styles I tried, for fun, to capture in this post, and I think I've failed. Honestly I'm sure there must be some Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces of his out there that I haven't found, not to mention a slew of other styles that he worked in that I might be neglecting–oh well! 

Anyway, Malevich created a style known as Suprematism, which is founded upon the idea of using basic geometric shapes as the focus of a painting. His masterpiece in the style can be seen below, Black Square, which also at one dark time hung above his deathbed (or, rather, a version of it did). He described the creation of the Black Square thusly: "I felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived the new art, which I called Suprematism."

Black Square

1923-1929

Knife Grinder (Principle of Flickering)

1913

Oak and Dryads

1908 

The Female Bathers

1908

Suprematism (Supremus 58)

1916

Haymaking

1928

Cow and Violin

1913

Airplane Flying

1915

River in the Forest

1908

As an interesting–to me–aside, I believe there's an English translation of The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, that uses the below painting, An Englishman in Moscow, on its cover.

An Englishman in Moscow

1914

Giacomo Balla (July 18, 1871 – March 1, 1958)

                                                                                      

Street Light

1909

I'm a great fan of Futurism and Balla was one of the movement's most important artists. Two of the paintings here illustrate the striving, within the Futurist movement, towards the visualization of motion, whether it be centered on the walking of a dog or on the shooting light of a street lamp. Besides progressing the Futurist movement, I've included several of Balla's wonderful Post-Impressionist pieces.

The World's Fair at Night (Luna Park)

1900 

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

1912

Self-Portrait

1902

Umberto Boccioni (October 19, 1882 – August 17, 1916)

                                                                                                    

Materia (aka Portrait of the artist's mother)

1912 

Umberto Boccioni is the most well-known member of the Futurist movement. His paintings are expressions of the psychological states of their characters, as well as attempts at actually illustrating non-static elements, such as movement, in a static medium. 

States of Mind

States of Mind I: The Farewells

1911

 States of Mind II: Those who go

1911

 States of Mind III: Those who stay

1911