Study for 'Rising Forces', 1916

Gerardo Dottori joined the Futurist movement in 1912, and went on to become the dominant figure within the avant-garde circles of his native Umbria. A pioneer of Futurist sacred art, he was also among the most significant exponents of ‘aeropainting’ during the 1930s, depicting the landscape as if seen from the cockpit of a speeding aircraft. Typical of Dottori’s imagery is the use of distended horizons to suggest viewpoints of such altitude as to render the curvature of the earth visible. This tiny drawing, sketched on the rear of a photograph dating from the First World War, was donated to the museum in 2006. It reflects the artist’s fascination with the dynamic forces at work within the natural environment, rather than those associated with machinery or the modern city. He revisited its motif of soaring mountain peaks in a large painting of 1930.