In the year of the one hundred and fortieth anniversary of the birth of Gerardo Dottoria leading exponent of the futurist movement, the National Museums of Perugia – Regional Directorate of National Museums of Umbria propose, from 13 October 2024 to 19 January 2025, at the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugiaa tribute to
the artist to illustrate his artistic journey, through selected works little known to the general public, edited by the Dottori Archives in the persons of Massimo Duranti, Andrea Baffoni, Francesca Duranti and with the collaboration of Beatrice Falcione.
In room thirty-nine, in which the permanent itinerary of the National Gallery of Umbria currently ends with an opening on the historicized twentieth century, on the occasion of the XX Contemporary Day promoted by AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums, the GNU wants to start to a series of insights dedicated to the movements and artists that marked the “short century”. The first protagonist of this new initiative is Gerardo Dottori, one of the personalities who dominated the Umbrian artistic scene in the first half of the century.
Through rarely exhibited works, mostly coming from private Italian collections, the Perugian exhibition retraces all the languages addressed by the artist during his expressive itinerary: from divisionism-pointillism of the first decade of the 20th century, to the dynamism of the mechanical medium of early 1910s, from the visual-auditory sensations of the mid-1910s to the aero-pictorial developments of the early 1920s, arriving at the early 1940s, a few years before the historical end of the movement Marinettiano with the death of its founder in 1944.
Among the works on display it stands out Visiondel 1906, work found in Milan in the early Sixties, the only one signed with the monogram of the initials 
of the artist. Created during Dottori’s stay in the Lombard capital, it reveals the influence of the pointillist painting of artists such as Giovanni Segantini and Gaetano Previati, particularly evident in the filamentary brushstroke technique. Linked to the artist’s futurist beginnings, it presents itself Motorcyclistfrom 1914, which expresses the theme of the dynamism of motor vehicles, influenced by the fascination for speed: the result is an effect in which the motorcyclist seems to be enveloped by the landscape. The work was exhibited at the Casa d’Arte Bragaglia and donated with dedication to Marinetti.
It is from the beginnings of Aeropittura, which has not been exhibited for decades Umbrian springfrom 1923, where the view from above of Lake Trasimeno, with the Umbrian hills as a backdrop, ideally positions the observer at the center of the scene, extending the perception of space and giving the painting a lyrical quality.
A similar painting was present at the Venice Biennale in 1924 where Dottori, the first of the futurists, was admitted to the competition. The exhibition intends to offer the public an in-depth knowledge of the artist, also enhanced by the suggestion of a “Doctorian” itinerary in the Umbrian territory, which winds through the places that preserve the artist’s works, from the Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna to Perugia up to Tuoro sul Trasimeno. The exhibition will be enriched by an educational apparatus, which will illustrate the scientific motivations behind the exhibition project, the artist’s biography, the link with the territory and a small catalogue, for the types of Silvana Editoriale. In addition, there will be events (conferences, screenings, guided tours) aimed at further deepening the knowledge of Gerardo Dottori and revealing unpublished or little-known aspects of him.
Doctors (Perugia, 1884-1977) was a leading exponent of Futurism since 1912 and protagonist of Aeropittura, which developed in the Marinettian movement from the mid-1920s onwards, made official in 1931 with a manifesto where his signature. In reality, the Perugian painter is to be counted among the “transit futurists” from the first to the following season together with Enrico Prampolini and Fortunato Depero, having created works of mechanical dynamism and nature as early as 1912-1913-1914. In 1914 he organized a memorable Futurist Evening in Perugia with Marinetti and other protagonists of the first heroic season of the Movement. The First World War interrupted the activities of the Movement, but Doctors, at the front, also wrote numerous “Words in freedom” and drew visual and auditory sensations with makeshift means. Returning from the war, he made his debut in Rome at Bragaglia presented by Marinetti and from then on he participated fully in the group’s activities. Active in Rome from 1926 to 1939, when he returned to Perugia called to the chair of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and then to its direction, he effectively became Marinetti’s spokesperson in the capital, writing constantly in newspapers and magazines. Present at twelve Venice Biennials, at all the Rome Quadrennials before 1950 and at the main exhibitions in Italy and abroad in which the Futurists were present, marginalized like all Marinettians with the fall of the regime, in which he was involved without demonstrating indeed, close to Marinetti in foiling the Nazi “degenerate art” operation in Italy too, he continued to paint in silence until he was rediscovered, at the end of the 1960s, by critics such as Guido Ballo, Enrico Crispolti, Maurizio Calvesi and Carlo Franza. He passed away in 1977 at the venerable age of ninety-three, since then anthological exhibitions have been organized and his works have appeared in the most important historical exhibitions in Italy and abroad, such as Italian Futurism 1909-1944 Reconstructing the universe at the Guggenheim in New York in 2014. An anthology of his was held in the American metropolis at New York University in 1998, in London an anthology in 2014 at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italia Art. In Perugia, in the Civic Museum, it was set up in 2004 the Collection of works by Gerardo Dottori with the paintings he donated to the Municipality in 1957 and others coming from other public institutions and private. The Doctor Archives were established in 2006 and in the same year the general catalog raisonné of the artist’s works was published by EFFE Fabrizio Fabbri Editore.
Carlo Franza