Bruno Munari: My Futurist Past at Estorick Collection

Bruno Munari, one of the most prolific and diverse artists of the 20th century is being celebrated with an exhibition at The Estorick Collection in London.

Image via The Estorick Collection

Using his involvement with the Futurist movement as a young man as a starting point, the exhibition focuses on the first half of his career. Useless machines, Dada Alphabets, advertising, graphic design, textile designs...they're all there. Diverse in style, it is hard to believe it is all the work of a single person.
 

Image via The Estorick Collection

The work of his advertising studio R+M (one of the first in Italy) revolutionised the field with photography and photomontage, at a time when images were hardly used in ads.

Ad in Campo Grafico magazine. Image via The Estorick Collection

His mobile sculptures pre-dated the more famous works of Alexander Calder - but he always rejected the comparisons between the two. Yes, they were both conceived at about the same time (in the 1930s) and both were hanging objects, but they were made of different materials and where Calder's work is organic, Munari's work is geometric and harmonious.

Never elitist, Munari's writing is used as a resource by young and old alike - his text Design As Art is used by artists and designers alike, while his ABC and ZOO illustrated books are clever learning tools for children (but secretly enjoyed by just as many adults).

         

Bruno Munari: My Futurist Past at The Estorick Collection until 23 December 2012.