Fragments of Totality

Futurism, Fascism, and the Sculptural Avant-Garde

Ara H. Merjian

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Hardback

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English

Yale University Press
22 October 2024

A new history of Futurism and its fraught ideological ambitions, centered on sculptural experimentation

As the first comprehensive avant-garde of the twentieth century, Italian Futurism sought to integrate modern life with every imaginable aesthetic medium. The detached materiality of sculpture offered a singular proving ground for the drive to merge art and existence. Sculpture's theory and practice offers a distillation of Futurism's larger aims and frustrations: a will to mechanize haunted by the tradition of craft; the liberation of flight burdened by mass and gravity; the lyrical mutiny of form chastened by the exigencies of design; and a dream of totality splintered by the contingency of the fragment.

Centered on avant-garde sculpture in Italy and other European countries between the world wars, Fragments of Totality ventures a new history of Futurism and its fraught ideological ambitions. Illuminating understudied works by prominent artists like Giacomo Balla, Enrico Prampolini, Fortunato Depero, and Bruno Munari alongside the efforts of many lesser-known figures, this first major study of Futurist sculpture opens onto wider questions: from labor and leftist Futurism, to the politics of aesthetic autonomy, to the intersections between race, imperialism, and materials. The medium—and the idea—of sculpture sets into relief the demands of any project of modern cultural totality. Futurism's shifting definitions of ""plasticity"" underscore the volatile political economy not only of interwar Italy, but also perhaps of a wider Western epoch.

By: Ara H. Merjian
Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 279mm, Width: 216mm,
ISBN: 9780300270013
ISBN 10: 0300270011
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 22 October 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ara H. Merjian is professor of Italian studies at New York University. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including the forthcoming Futurism: A Very Short Introduction.

Reviews for Fragments of Totality: Futurism, Fascism, and the Sculptural Avant-Garde

“Merjian’s masterful account of Futurist sculpture will appeal across fields and will be essential reading for art historians, historians, and literary historians.”—Sharon Hecker, author of A Moment’s Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture “With lucid, eloquent prose and novel arguments and case studies, Merjian has produced a stunning book in Fragments of Totality. It stands to become one of only a handful of authoritative, scholarly texts on Italian Futurism.”—Anthony White, author of Italian Modern Art in the Age of Fascism