The Artist
Fortunato Depero
Autobiographical Synthesis
«I was born in Fondo (Val di Non) Trentino in 1892. Plateau of meadows and dark forests of larches and firs. Valley of castles and sanctuaries. Father born chimney sweeper and lived as policeman and jailer: bristly and spiky eyelashes and mustache, he was moved by a nothing, religious. Mother was a cook all eyes and heart. Naughty, I was sent to a German boarding school in Merano: I ate badly and didn’t like Germans. I attended for a few years the Royal Middle Schools in Rovereto, my adopted city. I studied grudgingly. I drew, painted, modelled, sculptured with early passion and tumultuous self-taught frenzy. I met Rosetta at the age of 14 … I flared up of her at 18 … two years later I abducted and took her in Rome. The world war broke out. Rosetta earned for both of us … I zero money and 1000 of life and art. I met the futurist vortex and its creative devils. Marinetti’s motto, marching and not rotting, inebriated me. Hunger + hunger + hunger – hunger x hunger = skinny-terribly skinny. Rosetta was ironing and crying. I, tenacious, stubborn, headstrong, very obstinate, audaciously, untiringly blind, followed the path of my destiny. Marinetti, Balla, Boccioni, Russolo, Bragaglia, Diaghilev, Semenov, Clavel, Azari, Notari revealed me, encouraged me, helped me, they defended me as a sure promise. I made a little of war as a volunteer on the Col di Lana. Reformed, I started my artistic march, faster and faster until today…»
from: Depero Futurista 1913-1927 (libro bullonato), 1927
Sintesi Autobiografica
«I was born in Fondo (Val di Non) Trentino in 1892. Plateau of meadows and dark forests of larches and firs. Valley of castles and sanctuaries. Father born chimney sweeper and lived as policeman and jailer: bristly and spiky eyelashes and mustache, he was moved by a nothing, religious. Mother was a cook all eyes and heart. Naughty, I was sent to a German boarding school in Merano: I ate badly and didn’t like Germans. I attended for a few years the Royal Middle Schools in Rovereto, my adopted city. I studied grudgingly. I drew, painted, modelled, sculptured with early passion and tumultuous self-taught frenzy. I met Rosetta at the age of 14 … I flared up of her at 18 … two years later I abducted and took her in Rome. The world war broke out. Rosetta earned for both of us … I zero money and 1000 of life and art. I met the futurist vortex and its creative devils. Marinetti’s motto, marching and not rotting, inebriated me. Hunger + hunger + hunger – hunger x hunger = skinny-terribly skinny. Rosetta was ironing and crying. I, tenacious, stubborn, headstrong, very obstinate, audaciously, untiringly blind, followed the path of my destiny. Marinetti, Balla, Boccioni, Russolo, Bragaglia, Diaghilev, Semenov, Clavel, Azari, Notari revealed me, encouraged me, helped me, they defended me as a sure promise. I made a little of war as a volunteer on the Col di Lana. Reformed, I started my artistic march, faster and faster until today…»
from: Depero Futurista 1913-1927 (libro bullonato), 1927