Schnelligkeit

Accession Number
1948/1.333

Title
Schnelligkeit

Artist(s)
Umberto Boccioni

Artist Nationality
Italian (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1914

Medium & Support
lithograph on paper

Dimensions
11 5/8 in x 15 1/8 in (29.5 cm x 38.4 cm);22 in x 18 in (55.88 cm x 45.72 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Subject matter
As a central member of the Italian Futurists movement, Boccioni strove to engage with modernity in all aspects. The same year he created this design, he pubilshed the seminal Futurist text Pittura Scultura Futuriste (Futurist Painting and Sculpture). In it, he described the need for a new aesthetic that fit with the new life of modernity, which entailed throwing away and destroying anything that represented the old world.
This image of a cyclist shows the artist's engagement with this modern form of transportation (the bicycle), as a representation of the speed of modern life. The design reflects Boccioni's interest in representing dynamic movement and speed, which he would portray in numerous works, including the important painting Dynamism of a Cyclist, 1913 (Guggenheim, Venice). In those works, as in this lithograph, Boccioni explored how modern dynamic tensions can be represented. The only known lithograph that Boccioni produced, it was only published later in Weimar for a Bauhaus collection of contemporary printmaking. 

Physical Description
At the center of the page, there is an abstracted image with dark curved lines and crosshatching. Thick dashed lines reach out from the left side of the image towards the top and bottom of the work. The artist signature is in the stone (l.r.) "Boccioni".

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Futurist
bicycle
bicycles
cycling
cyclists
modern and contemporary art
motion
speed