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| Bruno Munari, Negativo-positivo, 1948/1950. From: Cinque artisti del M.A.C.: Gillo Dorfles, Augusto Garau, Bruno Munari, Ettore Sottsass, and Luigi Veronesi, portfolio, Milano, March 1981 |
Bruno Munari described (1907-1998) himself as an "artist, writer, inventor, designer, architect, and illustrator", a list that is nowhere near exhaustive. He began his career at an early age during the second wave of Italian Futurists, exhibiting his work for the first time in 1927 at Galleria Pesaro, Milan. Simultaneously he pursued activities as an art-director, curator, and illustrator. In the years following, he progressively moved away from the influence of Futurism, developing an extremely personal and singular project over the course of 60 years. In 1930, he produced the "Aerial Machine", from which came his "Macchine Inutili / Useless Machines", anticipating his interest in the deconstruction of the traditional work of art. Much of Munari’s work is characterized by a pedagogic interest and a radical vision of expanding man’s understanding of the world through the development of new forms of visual communication. Prolific in output throughout his life, and tirelessly inventive, his work includes some of the earliest experiments in what Munari himself would term "programmed art", as well as light art, installation art, projection-based art, and photocopy art. Throughout his work, Munari viewed technology as a democratizing force within Art, citing the potential for an "art by all", and the destabilization of the idea of the singular artistic genius.
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| Bruno Munari, original xerography, Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY, 1966 / ED.912 Edizioni di Cultura Contemporanea, Milano, 1967 |
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Bruno Munari, Tetracono, 1965, (photocomposition by David Reinfurt), aluminium and steel, electromotor, 26,5x20x21,3 cm, 10 A.M. Art, Milano.
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| Bruno Munari, Untitled, 1994 |
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