Antonio Marasco

Antonio Marasco was born in Nicastro, Calabria, in 1896 and at the age of ten moved to Florence where he later joined Futurism, frequenting the milieu that gravitated around the magazine ‘Lacerba’, thus coming into contact with Giovanni Papini and Ardengo Soffici.

In 1914 he went to Munich where he met Vasilij Kandinskij and Franz Marc, but also met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with whom he travelled to Russia. Thanks to this trip, Antonio Marasco discovered the Russian avant-garde, which was to have a great influence on his style. In fact, he took from Russian art the dynamism and constructive elements that he combined with Futurist stylistic elements.

On his return, he participated in the 1st International Futurist Exhibition at the Sprovieri Gallery in Rome in 1914, and in the same year he met Umberto Boccioni, who was passing through the Tuscan city in Florence. This encounter would leave its mark on Antonio Marasco’s painting. Together with him and other artists he took part in an exhibition in California and New York in 1915.

When the First World War broke out, Antonio Marasco decided to enrol as a volunteer in the Corps of Engineers and was sent stationed on Monte Grappa, but here in 1918 he had a serious accident inhaling a large quantity of gas that forced him to return to Florence.

The international outlook of Antonio Marasco

Before leaving, Antonio Marasco had enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, whose master was Galileo Chini. At the end of the conflict came the time for the final exam, but Antonio Marasco failed it. As a form of revenge and disapproval, he went to an exhibition organised by Galileo Chini and destroyed some of the paintings present with a sabre. His behaviour did not go unnoticed and Marinetti took notice of him, praising him for his aversion to the past tense.

During the 1920s, the artist travelled extensively in Europe, and when he was in Germany, he participated, together with Prampolini, in the activities of the Novembergruppe, an association of German artists and architects linked to the European avant-garde, especially Dadaists and the Werkbund, ideas that would later flow into the Bauhaus.

He also participated in a number of exhibitions in Germany, for example in 1921 he exhibited at the Vasari Gallery in Berlin to great success. His painting inherited the influence of Boccioni, but with an eye towards abstractionism, thus a painting closer to and more appealing to German culture.

In 1922, the Great International Futurist Exhibition held in Berlin consecrated the Futurist Movement and in the same year Antonio Marasco also exhibited in Dusseldorf at the Erste Internationale Kunstausstellung together with Boccioni, Depero, Pannaggi and Prampolini.

Exhibition success in Italy and the “Futurist Bloc”

In Italy, he took part in various events: in 1927 he exhibited Ritratto di Marinetti at the Mostra dei trentaquattro pittori futuristi in Milan; in 1929 he took part in the Mostra dei trentatre pittori futuristi in Milan with Il peso delle dolomiti and Equivalenti geometrici; in 1934 he exhibited Omaggio a Boccioni, Belvedere and Rifrazione di luce in un paesaggio at the Florence Exhibition, while at the following edition he showed Onoranze a Marinetti.

Antonio Marasco was also a guest at several editions of the Venice Biennale: in 1928 he exhibited Aeroplani; in 1930 he participated with 8 works including Paesaggio Sila grande, Fascismo (exploration in free intuition), Arrotino, Lirismo d’officine; in 1932 he exhibited Aeropittura I, Aeropittura II.

The abstractionism of Antonio Marasco’s Aeropittura and his total support for the Regime

Antonio Marasco was among the signatories of the Manifesto dell’Aeropittura, declining however the Aeropittura vision in a more abstractionist definition. He took part in the Futurist Aeropainting and Stage Design Exhibition in Milan in 1931, presenting Aeroplanes and Aeropainting. Antonio Marasco also took an interest in theatre by producing some set designs, called ‘scenoplastiche’, for the Compagnia Stabile Sarda.

In 1930 he received great recognition with a personal exhibition at the IV Regional Exhibition of Tuscan Art in Florence, taking part with 23 works including Aerial Fantasy, Skyscraper Logarithm, Torciera, Woman – Exterior, Commentary on Classicism, Sila grande, The Shovels of San Martino – Dolomites, Geometric Equivalences. He also participated the following year in the first edition of the Quadriennale in Rome with Lirismo strameccanico, Paesaggio della Sila and Introspezione polidimensionale.

In 1932, he decided to create an independent Futurist group called the ‘Futurist Bloc’ with the Manifesto of Independent Futurism, a group closely linked to the Florentine milieu. Antonio Marasco was a great supporter of Fascism and the figure of Mussolini, so much so that he was arrested at the end of the conflict. After the war, he lived in a kind of artistic isolation due to his fervent political orientation. However, he continued to participate in Futurist exhibitions in the 1960s until he was struck by blindness and forced to leave his paintbrushes behind. He died in Florence in 1975.