Encounters with Picasso: The Shock of Cubism and the Futurist Response by Christine Poggi

In partnership with Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, we are pleased to present Christine Poggi (Ph.D.), Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, to discuss Picasso and her book, In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage.

The artist Gino Severini, who resided in Paris, encouraged his fellow Italian Futurists to spend a few weeks in the French capital where they would have the opportunity to visit the studios of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. What the Italians saw proved to be both shocking and a spur to further innovation, leading to subsequent visits to Paris that allowed the Futurists to develop their own distinctive goals and techniques. This talk explores the responses of artists Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, and Luigi Russolo to Cubism, and to the art of Picasso in particular. It also addresses the early polymaterial experiments of Giacomo Balla, who, like Picasso, began to employ a diversity of materials in both pictorial and sculptural works in the years leading to First World War.

Christine Poggi is Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her research has focused on the early 20th-century European avant-gardes, the invention of collage and constructed sculpture, the rise of abstraction, and the relationship of art to emerging forms of labor and technology. Her books include *In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage *(Yale, 1992) and Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism (Princeton, 2008, awarded the Howard R. Marraro Prize from the MLA).

This program is part of “Europe Without Borders,” the 2023 series promoted by EUNIC Chicago (European Union National Institutes of Culture). In partnership with Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. Public Programming sponsored by Lakeside Bank.

Exhibition Presenting Sponsor: Wintrust Bank Additional sponsorship by Anonymous, Sally J. and Raymond J. Allen, Marcia Goltermann, Gigi and James Owens, Tony & Mary Ann Pasquinelli Foundation, Gary Metzner & Scott Johnson, Discover DuPage, the Illinois Office of Tourism, and Robert D. Kleinschmidt. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.