Mechanical Composition, 1975

Ivo Pannaggi  

Ivo Pannaggi (Macerata, 1901-1981) was an eclectic artist who debuted, very young, in the Futurist sphere. In 1922, he published the newspaper Noi together with Paladini, and later, with Prampolini, the Manifesto Futurista dell'Arte Meccanica (Futurist Manifesto of Mechanical Art), for which the drawing that inspired this lithograph was realized. 

The Manifesto sanctions and officializes a fundamental aspect of Futurist aesthetics, already delineated clearly in the manifesto of F.T. Marinetti of 1909, subsequently developed in 1915 in the Manifesto of Ricostruzione futurista dell'universo (Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe) of Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero. Human figures, animals, and landscapes acquire mechanical artificial forms, paying an enthusiastic homage to technical progress and modernity. The artist, during those years, is also architect of interiors, graphic designer, advertiser, innovator in the caricature field, which becomes a real Futurist artistic genre, as well as precursor of Mailing Art. Pannaggi exhibited his works with Futurists also in the USA, but he also felt close, both ideologically and artistically, to Soviet avantgardes.

From 1927 to 1939, he was in Germany, where he attended the Bauhaus of Weimar. He started working as correspondent from Lapland taking part in arctic expeditions, a task that he would document as photojournalist during the war, travelling around Germany, Norway, Venezuela, Brazil, and Africa. After the war, he moved to Norway, where he resumed his artistic activity especially as architect and designer. In the 1970s, he decided to go back to Italy and to settle in Macerata.