Untitled 

Bruno Munari made this untitled work using paint on cardboard, we think in 1948. The simple shapes and flat colours anticipate the rise of Minimalism and Pop Art, but Munari was interested in something different: liberating art from institutions. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Munari and other artists in Italy sought to rebuild their culture. They believed the war was caused by rigid thinking in politics, education and the arts. They asked, what would art look like if it was free from those constraints? Munari co-founded the MAC, or Movimento Arte Concreta. In the group's manifesto, he argued for an art based purely on abstract form. This art would be universal, not tied to any specific culture or ideology. To understand Munari, one can visit the archives of the MAC to examine the group’s writings and exhibition catalogs. We can look to the history of Italian design to see his influence on the look and feel of everyday objects. By looking at these social and institutional contexts, we can understand how Munari helped to re-imagine the role of the artist in society.