Boccioni, Umberto, << bah CHOH nee, oom BEHR toh >> (1882-1916), is considered the greatest Italian sculptor of the early 1900’s. He was also a noted painter and one of a group of Italian experimental artists and poets who organized in 1909 as Futurists (see Futurism ). Boccioni’s painting The City Rises is an excellent example of the Futurist style.
In his sculpture, Boccioni tried to express certain Futurist ideas about motion and space. Through distortion and the complex placement of forms, Boccioni attempted to represent the blend of an object with its path of movement or its surrounding space. Boccioni was the first to encourage and practice the free combination of different materials in sculpture. Boccioni was born on Oct. 19, 1882, in Reggio. He died on Aug. 17, 1916.
