Focus on Three Women (Boccioni) and explore the Transition.
Art teacher and portraitist Giacomo Balla introduced Boccioni to the painting styles of divisionism. According to the Deutsche Bank and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, divisionism, which emerged in Northern Italy in the late 1880s, was the “painting method [that] was characterized by the juxtaposition of strokes of pigment to create the visual effect of intense single colors”. These individual strokes vary over the surface of the canvas, resembling “filament-like” threads.  Divisionists also believed in increased luminosity in their paintings. As Boccioni was making the transition from divisionism to futurism, he struggled with changing his pre-futuristic subjects of art. This is because typical divisionism depicts rural labor, tranquility, beauty, and landscape. When Boccioni started to draw futuristic paintings, including industrialized scenes and urban modernity, he did not make the smoothest of transitions.  Italian divisionism uses a variety of spectral colors to apply the paint in varied dots and strokes. However, divisionism varies from artist to artist; there are no guidelines. Sometime in the years between 1909 and 1910, Boccioni met Fillipo Tommaso Marinetti, the first futurist formulator. These two men, along with Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini decided to create The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painters. This manifesto describes the theories that make up futurism as well as the guidelines that make a futuristic painting just that.
Northern Italy Giacomo Balla luminosity divisionism Italian Gino Severini Luigi Russolo Carlo Carra Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Deutsche Bank