Enrico Prampolini

Enrico Prampolini, born in Modena on April 20, 1894, and died in Rome on June 17, 1956, was one of the most versatile and innovative figures in 20th-century Italian art. A painter, sculptor, set designer, costume designer, engraver, theorist, and art writer, Prampolini emerged as a leading exponent of Futurism, joining the movement as early as 1912 while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome under Duilio Cambellotti and frequenting Giacomo Balla’s studio. His training was marked by an early openness to European avant-garde movements: he established contacts with Dadaism, Bauhaus, De Stijl, the Abstraction-Création group, and artists such as Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara, Fernand Léger, and Jean Cocteau. These exchanges deeply influenced his research, characterized by constant technical and theoretical experimentation, leading him to draft manifestos on abstract art, stage design, sculpture, and so-called “chromoplastic” art.
From the very beginning, Prampolini devoted himself to creating abstract and polymaterial works, using techniques such as oil, tempera, gouache, watercolor, and drawing. During the years of World War I, his style approached Synthetic Cubism, showing a strong interest in the interaction between music, movement, and form. In 1916, he came into contact with Swiss Dadaists and subsequently developed his first abstract paintings, always maintaining a dialogue with the main European artistic currents. In 1922, together with Pannaggi and Paladini, he signed the Manifesto of Mechanical Art, while in 1929 he adhered to the Manifesto of Aeropainting.
In addition to his painting, Prampolini was an innovator in the field of theatrical and cinematic scenography. In 1917, he designed the sets for the Futurist films Thaïs and Perfido incanto by Anton Giulio Bragaglia, creating dreamlike and claustrophobic environments that anticipated French and Russian avant-garde cinema and German Expressionism. He founded the magazine Noi in 1917, collaborating with Bino Sanminiatelli and Renato Fondi, and published numerous essays and theoretical manifestos. After moving to Paris in the 1920s, he founded the Theatre of Futurist Pantomime and organized national exhibitions of mural plastic art in Genoa and Rome.
Enrico Prampolini’s artistic production is highly sought after in the art market today, with works featured in major international auctions, including those of the Colasanti Auction House, where his drawings, sketches, and paintings have been sold. Among his most celebrated works are Cosmic Maternity, held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, and a vast production of polymaterial collages, fantastic visions, and symbols of human power, testifying to his relentless search for new expressive languages. Enrico Prampolini remains a central figure for understanding the evolution of Italian and European art between the two world wars, a bridge between Futurism, Abstraction, and the historical avant-gardes.