(b Fondo, Val di Non, Trentino, 30 March 1892; d Rovereto, 29 Nov 1960). Italian painter, stage designer, illustrator, decorative artist and writer. After difficult years of study, during which he made his first artistic experiments, he travelled to Turin in 1910 and worked as an apprentice decorator at the Esposizione Internazionale. In spite of spending a year as apprentice to a marble-worker, on his return to Rovereto, he decided to become a painter, choosing subjects associated with Symbolism and social realism. Shortly after publishing Spezzature–Impressioni: Segni e ritmi (Rovereto, 1913), a collection of poetry, prose and illustrations, he moved to Rome, where he met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti at the Galleria Permanente Futurista, run by Giuseppe Sprovieri; through Marinetti he met the Futurists, with whom he exhibited at the same gallery in the spring of 1914 (see FUTURISM, §1). This was followed by a one-man show at Trento in July 1914, which closed after a few days because of the outbreak of World War I. He succeeded in returning to Rome, where he was officially welcomed into the Futurist group. Before volunteering for the front, he was co-signatory with Giacomo Balla of the manifesto Ricostruzione futurista dell’universo (Rome, 11 March 1915). The two artists affirmed the need to create dynamic ‘plastic complexes’ with which to enliven the world, using materials of every kind.

• Depero, Fortunato
  • Periodical, §III, 5(vii): Italy
  • Rome, §III, 8: Art life and organization, after 1900
  • collaboration
    • Mazzoni, Angiolo
  • groups and movements
    • Aeropittura
    • Futurism, §I, 3: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture: International manifestations, 1912–13
    • Futurism, §I, 4: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture: Futurism during World War I
    • Futurism, §I, 5: Painting, graphic arts and sculpture: Post-war developments
    • Futurism, §II: Architecture
    • Italy, §II, 6(i): Architecture: After c. 1900: Stile Liberty and the Futurist legacy, c. 1900–c. 1920
    • Italy, §III, 7(i): Painting, c 1900–1945
  • works
    • Italy, §IV, 6: Sculpture, after c 1900
    • Italy, §VI, 5: Furniture, after 1900
    • Sound and art, §2: Electronic devices and other combinations of sound and art