Horizontal Volumes is a masterpiece created by Umberto Boccioni, an Italian Futurist painter and sculptor, in 1912. The painting is an oil on canvas piece that measures 100×100 cm and depicts several sitting men in art. Its composition integrates the Cubist style into Futurism, reflecting Boccioni’s fascination with sculpture after visiting Paris and seeing sculptural innovations such as Braque’s three-dimensional Cubist experiments in paper.
Boccioni played a critical role in shaping the revolutionary aesthetic of the Futurism movement. His approach to the dynamism of form and the deconstruction of solid mass guided artists long after his death. “Horizontal Volumes,” similar to his other paintings and sculptures, reflected his elaborate observation of the Cubist sculptors’ studios he visited while in Paris, including Constantin Brâncu?i.
The painting currently resides in a private collection but remains an essential reference for scholars who admire Italian Futurism’s innovative quality that made significant contributions to modern art history. Its iconic representation serves as a window for art lovers into one of Europe’s most exciting creative periods at the beginning of the twentieth century.”
