Study Day

Lutz Becker and Dominic Willsdon, Vita Futurista  A new version of Becker's acclaimed film Vita Futurista is being released on the occasion of the 2009 Centenary of Italian Futurism. It covers the story of Futurism from its beginnings in 1909 till the 1930s. The exhibition presented by Tate Modern concentrates on the first phase of Futurism which ended with the death of Boccioni in 1916. The film continues the history of Futurism through its second phase.

Discussion 1 This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their ‘avant-garde’ practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists’ disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an ‘art of modern life’ will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and ‘avant-garde’ utopias.

Gill Perry and Alex Danchev, Futurism: art and life and politics  The Futurist project was ambitious, not to say grandiose. It outran art to embrace life. It was also intensely political.

Matthew Gale and Gill Perry, ‘The raging broom of madness’: making an exhibition of Futurism  The presentation covers some of the ideas, issues and decisions that went into making Futurism at Tate Modern. It covers a range from conception to installation, including such concerns as how to present the manifestos and what happened to Balla's dog?

David Cottington, Futurism and The Avant-Garde  It is a commonplace of art history to observe that Italian futurism was among the first moveFuturism and The Avant-Gardements of the artistic avant-garde. But these terms, and the implications for understanding both futurist art and its significance for western modernism, are not often examined. What was ‘the avant-garde’, why did it emerge when it did, and what influence did it have on the sudden appearance of futurism on the European cultural stage?

Gill Perry and Dominic Willsdon​, Introduction This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their 'avant-garde' practices.

Mike Belshaw, Gill Perry and Chris Riding, Discussion 2  Matisse Picasso at Tate Modern brings together major masterpieces by the two giants of modern art. Between them Matisse and Picasso originated many of the most significant developments of twentieth-century painting and sculpture. Now you can discover more about their fascinating and intricate relationship in this long-awaited exhibition which opens at Tate Modern and subsequently travels to Paris and New York.

Gender, Matisse and the Fauves, Gill Perry  Gill Perry explores the relationship between the work of Matisse and the Fauve avant-garde, and that of several women artists working and exhibiting on the fringes of the movement. She focuses on issues of spectatorship and ideas of avant-gardism, and goes on to consider the role of gender in both contemporary and modern perceptions of Fauve practice.

Chris Riding, Matisse's Music Chris Riding considers focus Matisse’s paintings 'The Music Lesson' (1917) and 'The Piano Lesson' (1916) in relation to the formalist theories of Roger Fry and Clement Greenberg.Further ReadingG.Perry 'The expanding field: Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series' in J. Gaiger, ed, Frameworks for Modern Art, Yale UP/OU, 2004.J.Blocker, Where is Ana Mendieta, Duke University Press, 1999.

Mike Belshaw, Matisse and Picasso: Painting the Studio  Mike Belshaw focuses on Matisse and Picasso's studios, specifically their paintings of studios. He discusses the effects of paintings within paintings in such works and the extent to which the spectator's view can also be the artist's.