"Idea for a painting (ascending forms)"

GERARDO DOTTORI

Gerardo Dottori was born on 11 November 1884 in Perugia, into a family of humble origins, whose economic conditions were further aggravated by the death of his father, which occurred when his children (four, Gerardo was the eldest) were still young. Gerardo's artistic talent did not take long to emerge, and he perfected it by attending evening courses at the ‘Pietro Vannucci’ Academy of Fine Arts in his city, while during the day he worked as a restorer and antiques salesman, later also taking a course in decorating. Dottori has a very personal and visionary conception of Art, in fact he considers many of the academic principles as anachronistic and outdated. His first significant works are inspired by Divisionism, such as Fanciulla umbra (Umbrian Girl) (1904). He graduated from the Academy in 1906 and intensified his activity as an interior decorator, which was his primary source of livelihood. He moved to Milan, a city where the opportunities for work were greater, and there he executed murals in various private buildings. His stay in Milan allowed him to deepen his knowledge of Divisionism, which was to be of fundamental importance for the definition of his language. The year 1908 was a turning point: he came into contact with the intellectuals who directed the avant-garde criticism magazine ‘La Difesa dell'Arte’ in Florence and, thanks to his marked enthusiasm, he became the leader of a lively group of artists, musicians and writers who contested the old teachings of the Academy of Fine Arts. He continued his work as a decorator, which in 1909 saw him fresco various religious buildings in Umbria, such as the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Monte Vibiano Vecchio, near Todi. It was during this period that Dottori painted a work that was to be fundamental for later Futurist developments, Esplosione di rosso sul verde, dated 1910, a painting of rupture and reaction to tradition. In 1912 he joined Futurism and the activity of the Perugia Futurist group intensified, which met at the Caffè Mezzabestia to discuss the renewal of art proposed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's deflagrating Manifesto. During this period he produced his first beautiful studies of motorcyclists, cyclists, explosions and the famous ‘astral rhythms’ that exalted a dynamic and synthetic vision of movement. In 1914 Dottori was one of the main organisers of the Futurist Evening held at the Politeama Turreno in Perugia with the presence of Marinetti, and other leading exponents of the Movement, an event that was to receive great prominence in the local press. In 1915 the call to arms arrived and Dottori left for the First World War. The conflict did not, however, stop his artistic activity, Dottori, in fact, continued to paint with makeshift means, to write short stories, novellas, notes and the so-called ‘words in freedom’. While he was at the front, he received news from Perugia that he had been nominated Accademico di Merito della Accademia di Belle Arti, which he refused, in the press, writing an article in which he declared the incompatibility between his being a painter of the Italian artistic avant-garde and holding a position in an institution that was at odds with his ideas. Once the war was over, he soon resumed contact with his Futurist friends. In 1919, together with Presenzini Mattoli, he founded the periodical ‘Griffa!’ (from the war cry of the people of Perugia) with the aim of promoting the rebirth of Umbrian artistic life. This periodical was short-lived but highly successful, above all it succeeded in organising the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Perugia. Relations were forged with Marinetti, who visited the artist's studio and inaugurated his first personal exhibition in Rome. In October, in the presence of Marinetti and his wife Benedetta, the Ristorante Altro Mondo was inaugurated in the Umbrian capital, set up by the artist with a real futurist setting (unfortunately destroyed). In 1924, despite Marinetti's disapproval (he had not managed to get the Futurists officially included in the Venice Biennale) Dottori sent a painting, Primavera umbra (Umbrian Spring), which was accepted by the examining commission. In 1926, he began working as a decorator in Rome and his planned stay of a few months was to last until 1939, when he returned to Perugia to teach. In the capital, as well as working as a decorator, he supported himself by writing art reports for newspapers and periodicals and with his artistic activity, contributing to the elaboration of the Futurist political line also through his polemics against traditional figurative painting. The most important work of this period is the ‘Trittico della velocità’ (Speed Triptych), a painting praised many times by Marinetti, a work that, together with the mural decoration of the Idroscalo di Ostia in 1928, will mark the affirmation of aeropainting, giving new impetus to the Futurist course. These works will be of fundamental importance for the elaboration of the subsequent Manifesto of Aeropittura of which Dottori will be the undisputed leader. In the Manifesto of Futurist Sacred Art signed by Marinetti and Fillia, in 1931 Dottori is remembered as the first Futurist painter who renewed sacred art. With the work ‘Anno X’ Dottori won the Ministry of Corporations Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1932 and together with Enrico Prampolini was the only Futurist to collaborate in the exhibition for the Decennial of the Fascist Revolution held in Rome. He returned definitively to Perugia in 1939. . Between 1936 and 1938 he taught at the Art Institute in Perugia, and was then appointed to the chair of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1940, he was appointed director of the Academy. At the end of 1941, he wrote the Manifesto Umbro dell'Aeropittura, his declaration of poetics in which he specifies the originality of his own aeropictorial language, published in the artist's first monograph (which bears a preface by Marinetti) for Edizioni futuriste di poesia. In 1945 he left the Accademia, although he continued to teach Painting until 1966. As a consequence of the condition of local and national isolation, common to the survivors of Futurism, Dottori was relegated to a limbo from which, individually, he did nothing to get out. However, he continued to paint and exhibit. The rediscovery of Futurism and its protagonists reached him late. His first post-war personal exhibition was in 1951 in Milan, the year in which he was invited to the first historical exhibition on the avant-garde movement held in Bologna. He exhibited incessantly at numerous group exhibitions, especially in Umbria, where he was always considered an undisputed master, and continued to participate and win numerous prizes. In 1957, he donated five of his masterpieces to the City of Perugia to form the nucleus of the future Modern Art Gallery. In the same year, the city organised his first retrospective. In 1960, Dottori met Tancredi Loreti, an entrepreneur and art collector, who was dedicated to promoting his work. It is to Loreti that we owe the numerous exhibitions and initiatives in Italy and abroad, as well as important publications such as the 1970 monograph (published by Editalia, with text by Guido Ballo). In 1972, the Tate Gallery in London asked Dottori for the painting ‘Esplosione di rosso sul verde’ (Explosion of red on green), which the artist donated and which is still in the British museum's prestigious collection. In 1974, a large anthological exhibition was held in Trieste to celebrate his 90th birthday. Dottori painted until the end of his life and, with great vitality, he also produced a series of ‘abstract’ works in his last days. He died on 13 June 1977 at his home in Viale Pellini, Perugia. The Piero Della Francesca Art Gallery in Arezzo, collaborated directly with the Maestro from 1969 until the date of his death, organising, in 1971, an important anthological exhibition of his work curated by Giovan Battista Vaiani Lisi and his son Giacomo, who in those years, also thanks to their shared passion for speed and motorcycling, forged a solid friendship with the old maestro.