Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Arturo Bragaglia. The Smoker–The Match–The Cigarette. 1911. Gelatin silver print, 4 5/16 × 4 1/8" (11 × 10.4 cm). Thomas Walther Collection. Gift of Thomas Walther. © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome

“We consider life to be pure movement. We love and we observe reality in its fatal and vital motion.”

Anton Giulio Bragaglia

Anton Giulio Bragaglia was the intellectual leader of Italian Futurist photography; he made his photographs in collaboration with his younger brother Arturo Bragaglia. Anton Giulio completed his scholastic education at the local seminary in his Italian hometown; however, his artistic training was developed as an assistant, alongside his brothers, in his father Francesco Bragaglia’s film production company in Rome. In 1911 he published the first of three editions of his book Fotodinamismo futurista (Futurist photodynamism), a treatise on photography that integrated influences from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s first Futurist manifesto of 1909, the chronophotographs of Étienne-Jules Marey, and cinema.

Members of the Futurist movement sat for a number of photodynamist portraits by the Bragaglia brothers, and Marinetti offered the brothers financial support for their experiments. In 1913 the brothers participated in the Futurist evening at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome, distributing copies of Fotodinamismo futurista among the participants. Anton Giulio continued to organize exhibitions of their work and published a new manifesto, titled La fotografia del movimento (Photography of movement), as well as an extended edition of Fotodinamismo futurista in June 1913. In October 1913, the Bragaglia brothers were excluded from the Futurist group by request of Umberto Boccioni. In 1914 Anton Giulio’s focus began to shift from photography to film; he collaborated with Enrico Prampolini on several films in 1916 and 1917. In October 1918 he opened the Casa d’arte Bragaglia, which existed in Rome until 1943 as an exhibition space for Futurist art and a meeting point for intellectuals and artists. With his brother Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia he created the Teatro degli Indipendenti in 1922, a theater that ran until 1928.

Note: Opening quote is from Rainey, Lawrence S. “Futurist Photodynamism (1911),” in Modernism/Modernity 15, no. 2 (April 2008): 365. https://doi.org/10.1353/mod.2008.a235931.

Mitra Abbaspour, Associate Curator, Department of Photography, 2014

Wikipedia entry
Introduction
Anton Giulio Bragaglia (11 February 1890 – 15 July 1960) was a pioneer in Italian Futurist photography and Futurist cinema. A versatile and intellectual artist with wide interests, he wrote about film, theatre, and dance.
Wikidata
Q589698
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Getty record
Nationality
Italian
Gender
Male
Roles
Artist, Art Director, Designer, Photographer
Name
Anton Giulio Bragaglia
Ulan
500025100
Information from Getty’s Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License

Works

1 work online

Exhibitions

Publications

  • Photography at MoMA: 1840–1920 Hardcover, 376 pages
  • Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art Exhibition catalogue, Hardcover, 376 pages
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