Ritratto di Marinetti poeta del Golfo della Spezia 1934

Enrico Prampolini made this enigmatic portrait of Marinetti, the Futurist poet, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The crisp geometry and cool palette give the painting an almost diagrammatic quality, like an architect’s blueprint. But look closer, and you’ll see how the paint is applied in layers, sometimes thick and textured, sometimes thin and transparent, creating a sense of depth and movement. Take that squiggly line representing Marinetti’s mouth - it's so playful! The red jumps out from the cool blues and purples, suggesting a hidden energy, or maybe even a secret. The longer you look the more the various component parts of the image seem to disconnect and float free of one another, defying any singular reading. Prampolini’s work shares something with the later paintings of Francis Picabia, who similarly embraced both mechanistic and organic forms, reveling in the kind of productive confusion that keeps our eyes, and our minds, engaged.