2+works+of+art+by+Boccioni

//La risata// and //Forme uniche nella continuità dello spazio// - Elisa M.
**La risata** - oil on canvas, 1911, New York, MOMA

//La Risata// shows a group of women and of '//viveurs//' talking cheerfully around a table in a coffee shop. One of the women - who are dressed in a rather eccentric way - bursts out laughing and her contagious laughter 'expands' in the air to the people around her. The scene is acutely represented with great efficiency of style; the effect of the colours are well rendered by their violence and energy. Boccioni uses combinations of bright colours to communicate his emotions and memories of that moment. To give an example, the yellow feather in the foreground looks like a firework, an explosion of pure energy. The figures in the foreground are sectioned, multiplied, decomposed and reassembled; the men's faces and gestures are structured in layers that overlap and merge with each other. It is interesting to see the motion generated by the woman's laughter, a wave created by curved lines and colours. The characters of the painting were studied from several points of view; both visible and hidden objects are represented in the scene because the painter tried to paint all that was present in his memory. In this way the principle of Roentgen Rays was applied to the picture; reference to a psychological approach to visual memory is clearly stated by this technique. The principle of Roentgen Rays reminds of bodies transparency, their immaterial coexistence which is enhanced by light, and to their own spirituality in Boccioni's 'vision'.


 * [[image:scultura3.JPG width="309" height="377" align="left"]]Forme uniche nella continuità dello spazio** - bronze,1913, Milan, Civiche Raccolte d'Arte

Boccioni wanted to convey the idea of simultaneity and of movement with something he believed to be static, frozen. This was one of his favourite targets to achieve in scuplture, which were embedded in the Manifesto of Futurism; he stated that he wanted to renew the mummified art of sculpture. The aim of his research was the representation of dynamism; therefore, he realised sculptures which could express the 'continuity of a body in space'.

The architecture-like spiral look of this sculpture gives the idea of a continuity of shapes that enable the 'spectator' to follow the movements of a new body, enriched with new material plasticity and new energy, through the 'forma-forza' generated by the real shapes of the original body. The muscles of the man undergo an endless transformation, made possible by movements and speed, which lead to new plastic shapes; body and space, shape and motion are merged and perceived as one.



This statue is one of the most famous Italian sculptures and it is represented on the back of Italian 20-Eurocent coins.

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