Emilio Pettoruti (1892-1971)

charcoal on paper

Private Collection, France (acquired from the artist)
By descent to the previous owner
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Angel Osvaldo Nessi, Emilio Pettoruti: un Clásico en la Vanguardia, Buenos Aires, Estudio de Arte S.A., 1987, p. 115, no. 20
Fundación Pettoruti, Emilio Pettoruti, Buenos Aires, Fundación Pettoruti, 1995, no. 30, illustrated

The sheet is taped to the mat from the reverse along all four edges. There is a 6 in. repaired vertical tear extending from the top edge, 1 in. from the right edge. There are also two losses along the left side of the sheet of paper (measuring 1 in. at the top and ½ in. lower down). Otherwise in excellent condition.
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Emilio Pettoruti left Buenos Aires in 1913 and sailed for Europe arriving several months later in Genoa and eventually making his way to Florence. Once there, he joined the ranks of artists from around the world who were flocking to Italy to study the masters of the Renaissance and the legacy of the Roman Empire.

 

Interestingly, it was not the lure of the old that interested Pettorutti but rather the challenge of the new. He devoured the magazine Lacerba, which published the Futurist Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and other theorists. Soon after he saw the Espozisione Futurista Lacerba at the Libreria Gonnelli in Florence which included works by Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni.

 

Pettoruti immersed himself in this new world and produced a series of visceral Futurist works, mostly on paper, including Espansione Dinàmica which conveys the energy he felt upon encountering this new language, so different from the Impressionist-inspired works he produced in Buenos Aires.