Biography
Gino Severini was born on April 7, 1883, in Cortona, Italy. He studied at the Scuola Tecnica in Cortona before moving to Rome in 1899. There he attended art classes at the Villa Medici and by 1901 met Umberto Boccioni, who had also recently arrived in Rome and later would be one of the theoreticians of Futurism. Together Severini and Boccioni visited the studio of Giacomo Balla where they were introduced to painting with “divided” rather than mixed color. After settling in Paris in November 1906, Severini studied Impressionist painting and met the Neo-Impressionist Paul Signac.
Biography
Severini soon came to know most of the Parisian avant-garde, including Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Amedeo Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso, Lugné-Poë and his theatrical circle, the poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Fort, and Max Jacob, and author Jules Romains. After joining the Futurist movement at the invitation of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Boccioni, Severini signed the Manifesto tecnico della pittura futurista of April 1910, along with Balla, Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Luigi Russolo.
Biography
Severini helped organize the first Futurist exhibition at Berheim-Jeune, Paris, in February 1912, and participated in subsequent Futurist shows in Europe and the United States. In 1913 he had solo exhibitions at the Marlborough Gallery, London, and Der Sturn, Berlin. During the Futurist period Severini acted as an important link between artists in France and Italy. He divided his time between Paris and Rome after 1920. Throughout his career Severini published important theoretical essays and books on art. Severini died in Paris on February 26, 1966.