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Gerardo Dottori (11 November 1884 – 13 June 1977) was an ItalianFuturist painter. He signed theFuturist Manifesto of Aeropainting in 1929. He was associated with the city ofPerugia most of his life, living inMilan for six months as a student and inRome from 1926-39.Dottori's' principal output was the representation of landscapes and visions ofUmbria, mostly viewed from a great height. Among the most famous of these areUmbrian Spring andFire in the City, both from the early 1920s; this last one is now housed in the Museo civico diPalazzo della Penna inPerugia, with many of Dottori's other works. His work was part of the art competitions at the1932 Summer Olympics and the1936 Summer Olympics.[1]
Dottori was born inPerugia to a working-class family. His mother died when he was eight years old. He was admitted as a young man to the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, and was employed at the same time by an antique dealer. In 1906 he worked as a decorator in Milan, where he was able to visit museums and exhibitions. He resumed his studies in 1908, mixing in avant-garde art circles inFlorence. In 1910 he began work with the magazineDefense dell'Arte.
In 1911 he went toRome where he metGiacomo Balla and became an adherent of Futurism. In 1912 he joined the first Futurist group in Umbria. In 1915 he fought inWorld War I, at the same time writingParole in libertà ("Words in freedom") which he published under the name G. Voglio.
In 1920 he founded the Futurist magazineGriffa!. In the same year he had his first exhibition in Rome. In 1924 he participated in the Futurist Congress, where he had already acquired a certain notoriety, presenting his thesis onRural Futurism. In the same year he exhibited at theVeniceBiennale, the first Futurist to do so. In the course of his life he participated in ten Biennales.
From 1926 to 1939 he lived in Rome, contributing to various art magazines. In 1925 he exhibited at the Permanente and in 1927 at the Gallery Pesaro in the first of a series of Futurist exhibitions, including a one-man show in 1931.
His major contribution to Futurism wasAeropainting. He was one of the signatories of the 1929Aeropainting Manifesto, signed also byBenedetta Cappa,Fortunato Depero,Fillìa,Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,Enrico Prampolini and others, who are among its major representatives. In 1932 he was one of the first Futurists to paint sacred subjects, following theFuturist Manifesto of Sacred Art (1931) signed by Marinetti and Fillìa. The Futurist involvement in religious art followed the signing of theLateran Treaty between theVatican andFascist Italy in 1929.
In 1939 Dottori was appointed to the chair of painting at Perugia, remaining in that post until 1947. In 1941 he wrote theManifesto of Umbrian Aeropainting in which he proposed that the essence of his Futurism lay in the representation of mystically-inclined landscapes.
Dottori carried out many mural commissions, including the Altro Mondo in Perugia and the hydroport inOstia. Mural painting was embraced by the Futurists in theManifesto of Mural Plasticism at a time when the revival of fresco painting was being debated in Italy.
Following a post-war silence around Marinetti's Futurism, Dottori exhibited in 1951 at Bergamini and the 1953 Biennale of Angelicum and continued to exhibit in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1989 a retrospective of Dottori's work was presented at the Gallery San Carlo.
Crocifissione (1927), a Futurist representation of the crucifixion of Christ (pictured right) is now housed in theVatican Museum.
