Submitting Institution
University of CambridgeUnit of Assessment
Modern Languages and LinguisticsSummary Impact Type
SocietalResearch Subject Area(s)
Studies In Creative Arts and Writing: Film, Television and Digital Media
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies
Summary of the impact
Dr Antonello's research on the Italian designer and artist Bruno Munari
and his relation with
Futurism was instrumental for the realization of an exhibition at the
Estorick Collection in London,
titled `Bruno Munari: My Futurist Past', held on 19 September - 23
December 2012. This was the
first exhibition of Munari's work in the UK and the very first exhibition
outside Italy since he passed
away in 1998. It caught the attention of international media, and prompted
the engagement of
scholars, teachers, and schools at all levels (from primary to
university), as well as discussions
among practitioners and graphic designers. The exhibition was organized in
collaboration with the
Miroslava Hajek Archive, Novara, Luca Zaffarano at munart.org, and the
Massimo and Sonia Cirulli
Archive, New York.
Underpinning research
Dr Pierpaolo Antonello has been a University Lecturer at Cambridge since
October 1999, and all
underpinning research was undertaken and published while employed at the
University of
Cambridge.
Dr Antonello is an international expert on the relationship between
literature and techno-science in
20th century Italy. His research has also focused on Italian
Modernism and on Futurism in
particular, considered as the most innovative art movement in Italian
Modernist art. More recently
he has been investigating the nexus between visual art and technology in
20th century Italy,
focusing on Bruno Munari as an emblematic case study. Dr Antonello's
research has unpacked the
subtle and complex relationship of Munari with the second wave of Futurism
(1926-1944), a period
in his production that has been much overlooked by art critics, but which
was also underplayed by
the artist himself. Dr Antonello's insight and his active work with
archives and key collectors of
Munari's work in Italy led to the idea of an exhibition to be held in UK.
Given its focus and interest
in Italian modernist art, the Estorick Collection was approached to host
the exhibit. A new
interpretation on Munari's early work has been fleshed out with the
material exposed at the
exhibition, making evident both the artist's links to Futurism and how
much Munari departed from
their legacy. In particular, the representation of technology and the
question of dynamism in art,
key aspects of Futurist aesthetics, has been addressed by Munari in a
thoroughly innovative and
imaginative way, through both an ironic distancing, and by combining it
with formal aspects he
borrowed from abstractionism, producing some ground-breaking works, like
the so-called `useless
machines', or `concave-convex', forerunners of kinetic art. This work on
Munari is also the first
instance of a wider project aimed to investigate the relationship between
art and industry in modern
Italy with the aim of producing a monograph and a series of exhibitions at
international level.
References to the research
3. Future Imperfect. Italian Futurism between Tradition and
Modernity. Special Issue of The
European Legacy. Journal of the International Society for the Study of
European Ideas, 14.7
(2009). Routledge. Edited by P. Antonello and M. Härmänmaa. In 2010 The
European Legacy was
rated among the top 15% of academic journals around the world by the
Australian Government's
Australian Research Council.
4. Il ménage a quattro. Scienza, filosofia, tecnica nelle letteratura
italiana del Novecento (Florence:
Le Monnier, 2005), 249 pp. ISBN: 88-00-86111-3. This item was part of the
2008 RAE exercise.
The Italian department of Cambridge was awarded 5*; 45% of the submitted
material was deemed
4* and 53% 3* quality.
All outputs can be supplied by the University of Cambridge on request.
Details of the impact
Dr Antonello's research was instrumental for the realization of the
exhibit. On the one hand he
liaised with two key archives — the Miroslava Hajek Archive, Novara,
Italy, and the Massimo and
Sonia Cirulli Archive, Bologna and New York —, and on the other with the
director of the Estorick
Collection. He suggested the inclusion of specific works by Munari and
supervised the production
of the catalogue, also suggesting some of the contributors to the
catalogue and liaising with them.
His analysis of the influence of Futurist art in the early Munari's
production was fleshed out by the
exhibition, with the inclusion of almost all the works that Dr Antonello
discusses in the essay listed
in the references to the research (n. 2). The director of the Estorick
Collection acknowledged Dr
Antonello's key contribution to the organization of the exhibit, with
relevant meetings in Italy and in
London, and with a fundamental contribution to the catalogue. The
co-curator of the exhibit also
flagged Dr Antonello's `ideational inspiration' for the exhibit, as well
as, his `generous work which
contributed to the historical and scientific coherence of the project',
and to the `authoritative
academic validation' he gave to the show.
Dr Antonello also gave an introductory Gallery talk at the Estorick on 29
Sep 2012, attended by
around 40 people, in which he highlighted to a general audience some of
the key features of the
exhibition, including Munari's debt to artists such as Enrico Prampolini
and Fortunato Depero, as
well as its most innovative artistic breakthrough of his early career like
the so-called `useless
machines'.
The exhibition was well attended and from the feedback we gathered it is
apparent that the exhibit
attracted the attention of an international audience: Odessa Swan, from
Seattle (USA) on
21.09.12 said: `Excellent show. I could have stayed in the Munari
Projection for hours'; James
Knuckles, from California, on 26.9.2012 wrote: `Very nicely curated
exhibition. Thank you'; another
anonymous visitor from Italy, wrote in the guest book: `I would love to
see this exhibition in Milan'.
More than thirty reviews have appeared in newspapers and specialized
on-line magazines, both in
Italy and in the English-speaking world, including the following: Alice
Rawsthorn, `At London
Exhibition, Celebrating a Visual Master', New York Times, 16
September, 2012; Adrian Hamilton,
`Bruno Munari: Back to the Futurists. This rare exhibition of his work
reveals an inventive artist who
used wit and imagination to make his work accessible', The Independent,
Monday, 24 September
2012; Laura Gascoigne, `Keeping the faith', The Spectator, 24 Nov
2012; Bruno Munari: My
Futurist Past was one of Sam Thorn's personal highlights of the
year, in Frieze, Nov - Dec issue.
The exhibition contributed to a renewed interest in the work of Bruno
Munari on an international
level. Twenty of Munari's original works were recently displayed at the
Firstsite exhibit on
Xerographies in Colchester (8 Sept. - 10 Nov. 2013). Four works which were
present at the
Estorick will be featured at the upcoming exhibition on Italian Futurism
at the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York (21 Feb. 2014 - 1 Sept 2014). A section of
the London exhibit
will also be on display during the same period at the Casa Italiana
Zerilli-Marimò at New York
University, New York, which will be also hosting a conference on Munari
for a more general critical
appraisal of his work and of his legacy. Prompted by the London exhibit,
other institutions are also
considering hosting a retrospective on Munari, like the MUDE in Lisbon,
and the YU
Contemporary, in Portland, USA.
Because of the versatile eclectic nature of Munari's art, the exhibition
lent itself to all sorts of
outreach activities, some of which were self-led, while other were
organized by the Estorick
Educational Department. Some of the institutions which visited the
exhibition were: St Mary
Pancras and, William Tyndale, The Italian School (primary); Wollaston
School, John of Gaunt
School, Harrow School (A-level); Middlesex University, London College of
Communication,
Westminster University, Birbeck College, City and Guilds of London Art
School, London
Metropolitan, University of Warwick, Regent's College, Central St Martins
(HEI). As part of the
evaluation form distributed, the teachers from William Tyndale school, who
came with 30 pupils for
a 2 hour creative workshop, said their visit was "inspiring", "engaging"
and "encouraged thinking
and discussion"; that it "exceeded their expectations", "met curriculum
requirements and learning
objectives" and that they were "highly satisfied" with the workshop.
The exhibit was also of great interest for practitioners and graphic and
industrial designers. It was
reviewed by websites like `London Design Guide', and `Archilovers'. A
roundtable discussion was
organized at the Estorick on 20 Nov 2012: Brian Webb (Webb&Webb),
Robert Boon (Inventory
Studio) and John Walters (Eye Magazine) explored Munari's enduring appeal
and iconic status
within the world of contemporary design, attempting to characterise the
nature of his achievement
and evaluate its legacy. Eye, the international review of graphic
design, a quarterly printed
magazine about graphic design and visual culture published in London since
1990, devoted the
issue n. 85 (2013) to Bruno Munari incorporating some of the insights from
the Estorick exhibition.
A roundtable discussion open to the public was also organized at UCL,
with the participation, along
with Dr Antonello, of Prof Jeffrey Schnapp (Harvard), and Prof Robert
Lumley (UCL). Video-recordings
of Prof Schnapp's contribution to the UCL event and of the roundtable with
Brian Webb,
Robert Boon, and John Walters were made available, as well as relevant
material related to the
exhibit, both on the Estorick website and on www.munart.org, the most
comprehensive website
devoted to Munari's art, to which Dr Antonello contributed with further
bibliographical information
and general advice about the material that should be included. The site is
currently visited by ca.
150 people per day. The importance of the munart.org website is attested
by the fact that Robert
Snowden, art director at the YU Contemporary Museum in Portland (USA), has
recently received a
grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation to translate the entire website into
English to make it
available to an English-speaking audience.
Sources to corroborate the impact
People who could be contacted to seek opinions on this impact case are
the following:
- Person 1, Director of the Estorick Collection;
- Person 2, Professor of Italian Cultural History at UCL;
- Person 3, Lecturer in Art History at the University of Nottingham;
- Person 4, Co-curator of the exhibit;
- Person 5, Founder, Cirulli Archive, Bologna-New York.
Other sources:
- http://www.munart.org/
- http://www.munariestorick.org/art.php?p=1
- Review in Frieze: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/the-year-in-review-uk/.