Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Beautiful Game

The World Cup of soccer “the beautiful game”, is going on right now in South Africa. After tying England 1 to 1, today the USA team plays Slovinia.

Dynamism of a Soccer Player by  Umberto Boccioni, Oil on Canvas, 1913

Italian artist Umberto Boccioni, captured the spirited energy of the game in his 1913 painting Dynamism of a Soccer Player.  "To paint a human figure you must not paint it; you must render the whole of its surrounding atmosphere . . . movement and light destroy the materiality of bodies." from Boccioni’s: "Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting".  

Futurists believed in making a complete break with the past. Unfortunately, they also believed in Fascism. Boccioni enlisted in the army in World War I, fell from a horse and died. The Futurist movement died shortly thereafter.

Link to: Museum of Modern Art to view more works by Boccioni.
Link to: Futurism Manifestos and Resources
Link to: World Cup Calendar

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