This is how Umberto Boccioni interpreted the view from the balcony of his mother's top-floor apartment in Milan, in 1911.
She stands at the railing, taking in the sprawl of the city. The riotous shards of colour and dynamic shifts in perspective create the sensation of a noisy, bustling town rushing up towards you.
When it was exhibited the following year, this startling painting signalled the radical new futurist movement. Its geometric elements and distorted panorama demonstrate the deep influence that expressionism and cubism had on Boccioni. The Street Enters the House was his first depiction of Milan from a futurist perspective; the title refers not only to the enveloping nature of urbanisation, but also to the drama of widespread expansion.
As you look more closely, it becomes clear that the scene below mainly consists of a large construction site, indicating the rapid modernisation...
Charles Saatchi's Great Masterpieces: Umberto Boccioni reinvented how we see the city
This is how Umberto Boccioni interpreted the view from the balcony of his mother's top-floor apartment in Milan, in 1911.
She stands at the railing, taking in the sprawl of the city. The riotous shards of colour and dynamic shifts in perspective create the sensation of a noisy, bustling town rushing up towards you.
When it was exhibited the following year, this startling painting signalled the radical new futurist movement. Its geometric elements and distorted panorama demonstrate the deep influence that expressionism and cubism had on Boccioni. The Street Enters the House was his first depiction of Milan from a futurist perspective; the title refers not only to the enveloping nature of urbanisation, but also to the drama of widespread expansion.
As you look more closely, it becomes clear that the scene below mainly consists of a large construction site, indicating the rapid modernisation...
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