Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

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Umberto Boccioni 1882- 1916 Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 Bronze 119.7 x 86.4 x 82.2 cm Umberto Boccioni was and Italian Oil painter and sculpture who lived from 1882 - 1916. He was a leading figure in the style of Futurism, the only avant - garde movement not originating in Paris (Italy). It was around from 1909 - 1915 and a movement about breaking away with the past and using styles such as cubism to ‘noisily promote’ machinery, speed, modernity and change. Boccioni died aged 31 falling off horse but even though his life was short his work evolved a lot over this time. He was interested in modern subjects such as crowds and riots, things that had a lot of movement as he liked to link several movements together showing several times at once in one piece. ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space’ is one of only four sculptures of Boccioni’s remaining today. He first ‘became obsesssed’ with them after he went to paris and saw works like George Braque’s Cubist sculptures. My first thoughts about the subject matter is that the sculpture still looks very modern, even today it looks ‘superhuman’, or even like a God, or something otherworldly. The Sculpture is a stylistic and futuristic view of the figure, however there are some differences to it. The sculpture doesn’t have any arms or an overly obvious face but more of a helmet for one instead. The figure is in a position of motion, like a runner and looks like it is moving even though it is a stationary object. Boccioni was thought to have gained inspiration from ‘The Winged Victory of Samothrace’ - (also known as the ‘Nike of Samothrace’) (220 - 185) and Auguste Rodin’s ‘The Walking Man’ (1907) when creating this sculpture and you can see the similarities between the three sculptures in terms of their stance and body. There are particular links with ‘The Winged Victory of Samothrace’ in that there is

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