Over 300 Works of “Italian Futurism” Coming to the Guggenheim in 2014

February 21–September 1, 2014

The first comprehensive overview of Italian Futurism to be presented in the United States, this multidisciplinary exhibition examines the historical sweep of the movement from its inception with F. T. Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto in 1909 through its demise at the end of World War II. Presenting over 300 works executed between 1909 and 1944, the chronological exhibition encompasses not only painting and sculpture, but also architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, advertising, free-form poetry, publications, music, theater, and performance. To convey the myriad artistic languages employed by the Futurists as they evolved over a 35-year period, the exhibition integrates multiple disciplines in each section. Italian Futurism is organized by Vivien Greene, Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In addition, a distinguished international advisory committee has been assembled to provide expertise and guidance.

Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore), 1913–14. Oil on board, 54.5 x 76.5 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome

Assistant to the President, Lisa Monaco, Speaks About Her Italian Roots at Bonaparte Ceremony

Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, was the keynote speaker at the 53rd Annual Ceremony honoring Charles J. Bonaparte, the 46th Attorney General and founder of the Federal Board of Investigation.

Lisa Monaco

Lisa Monaco

The ceremony was held at the U.S. Department of Justice on August 23, 2013.  Ms. Monaco spoke first about the importance of tradition in growing up in an Italian American family, and then pointed to the significant accomplishment of Charles Bonaparte in setting up an investigative force that evolved into the FBI.

Luca Franchetti Pardo, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C., delivered special remarks, noting the historic and continued cooperation between U.S. law enforcement agencies and their Italian counterparts.  Also speaking were Judge Francis Allegra and Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis.
Maria Marigliano, a senior official with USAID opened the ceremony with the singing of the national anthems of the Republic of Italy and the United States. Fr. Ezio Marchetto, Pastor of Holy Rosary Church, delivered the invocation.   The program was organized by Francesco Isgrò, Chair of the Friends of Charles Bonaparte, and an attorney at the Department of Justice.

Following are excerpts from presidential assistant Lisa Monaco’s prepared remarks, delivered at the 53rd Annual Ceremony honoring Charles J. Bonaparte.

“. . .why is it important that we keep coming together to honor our 46th Attorney General?

Many answers, but mine is: Tradition. Tradition is important–particularly for those of us from Italian families–and it’s worth preserving. It reminds us where we come from and how we got to be who we are. I’ve come to appreciate that more and more as I’ve gotten older.

Being Italian-American didn’t seem like something that made me special when I was growing up. Growing up in a Boston suburb, sometimes it made me feel different. But over time, my identity as an Italian-American, and my family’s traditions, have become a source of great strength and enduring pride.

My father tells me that my grandfather was just 16 when he came to the United States from Biccari, a little hilltop town in southern Italy. He arrived in Philadelphia and took a room at a boarding house that was run by a family who had emigrated from a neighboring hilltop back in Italy. Eventually he opened up a barbershop at 6th and Pine, married the innkeeper’s daughter, and together they raised four children, including my father, on South Broad Street as independent, first-generation Americans.

Many years later, when my grandfather passed away, my father wanted to make sure that his own children knew about their history. So he packed us up–me, my three brothers, mom, dad, and grandma–and took us all to Italy. It was like the Griswold’s family vacations, only with better food.

I was ten at the time, but I remember visiting Biccari and being welcomed home. The whole town felt like family, literally. The mayor of the town was a Monaco and so was the bishop. And I remember how special it was for my grandmother to reconnect with the heritage and traditions–like the nightly passeggiata (the walk around the town square) that was such a critical part of her story, and mine.

That trip made me appreciate my Italian heritage and importance of history and tradition, so I’m honored to be part of another fine Italian-American tradition, celebrating Charles Bonaparte and remembering this chapter of our history.

And it’s particularly meaningful to me not only because of Bonaparte’s Italian roots but because of his legacy in the Justice Department of founding the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds on display at Smithsonian in Washington, DC

Leonardo da Vinci created masterpieces of art and sculpture. Equally remarkable, his aggregate achievements in engineering, mathematics, anatomy, geology, physics, music, military technology, aeronautics, and a wide range of other fields, not only stood without peer in his own time, but were strikingly prescient for the distant future. He recorded his forward-looking ideas in thousands of notebook pages, known as codices. He produced one codex entirely on flight in 1505-1506, the Codex on the Flight of Birds. Among the many subjects Leonardo studied, the possibility of human mechanical flight held particular fascination. He produced more than 35,000

words and 500 sketches dealing with flying machines, the nature of air, and bird flight. In the Codex on the Flight of Birds Leonardo outlined a number of observations and beginning concepts that would find a place in the development of a successful airplane in the early twentieth century. Hundreds of years before any real progress toward a practical flying machine was achieved, Leonardo expressed the seeds of the ideas that would lead to humans spreading their wings. This extraordinary document, exhibited outside of Italy only a few times, will be displayed in The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age gallery. The Codex exhibit will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appreciate the genius of da Vinci in the same space as the Wright Flyer, which made the airplane a reality four centuries after the Leonardo produced the Codex on the Flight of Birds.

This exhibit is organized by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Italian Cultural Heritage and Activities, the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC, the Biblioteca Reale in Turin, thanks to the support of Bracco Foundation, Finmeccanica, and Tenaris. It is part of 2013 – Year of Italian Culture in the U.S., an initiative held under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic, organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC with the support of Corporate Ambassadors, Eni, and Intesa Sanpaolo.

Opens September 13, 2013 through October 22, 2013