Lot 114: MARIO CASTAGNERI 1892-1940

the photographer's credit and Milan studio address in the negative, matted, circa 1924

11 3/8 by 9 1/8 in. (29 by 23 cm.)

Acquired by the present owner from Robert Miller Gallery, New York, 1991

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the founder of the Futurist movement and author of The Futurist Manifesto (1909) which advocated, among other things, the violent destruction of older art forms to clear the way for new modes of expression. In 1924, Marinetti commissioned Castagneri, a successful commercial photographer in Milan, to photograph the First National Futurist Congress. Fascinated by the ideas he encountered there, Castagneri himself became a Futurist, exhibiting with the group throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Castagneri's work was heavily influenced by Fotodinamismo Futurista, the Futurist photographic manifesto by the Bragaglia Brothers, Anton Giulo and Arturo. The Bragaglias rejected the then-current, dueling trends of pictorialism and realism in favor of multi-layered photographic images that avoided a linear narrative.