Luigi Colombo, known by his evocative pseudonym Fillia, stands as a significant, if sometimes underappreciated, figure in the vibrant and tumultuous landscape of 20th-century Italian art. An artist of prodigious energy and diverse talents, Fillia was not merely a painter but a poet, playwright, novelist, critic, and a fervent organizer within the Futurist movement. His relatively short life, spanning from 1904 to 1936, was a whirlwind of creative activity that left an indelible mark on the second wave of Futurism, particularly in his exploration of mechanical aesthetics, spiritual dimensions, and the dynamic representation of modern life. As an Italian national, his work is deeply embedded in the cultural and political currents of his time, reflecting both the utopian aspirations and the inherent contradictions of the avant-garde.
Early Life and Artistic Genesis
Born Luigi Colombo in Revello, Piedmont, in 1904, Fillia's early life was shaped by a cross-cultural heritage, with an Argentine mother and an Italian immigrant father. This background perhaps contributed to his broad perspective and restless intellect. Largely self-taught as an artist, Fillia did not emerge from traditional academic confines. Instead, his artistic development was fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a keen observation of the rapidly changing world around him. He spent most of his life in Turin, a city that was a burgeoning industrial hub and a fertile ground for avant-garde ideas.
His initial artistic inclinations showed the influence of prevailing styles such as Post-Impressionism and the decorative elegance of Art Deco. However, the revolutionary call of Futurism, first proclaimed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in his 1909 manifesto, resonated deeply with the young Colombo. By the early 1920s, he had fully embraced the Futurist ethos, adopting the name Fillia – a name that suggested a connection to the filial, the new generation poised to reshape art and society.
Embracing the Futurist Whirlwind
Futurism, as envisioned by Marinetti and pioneering artists like Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, and Gino Severini, celebrated speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. It was a radical break from the past, a call to demolish museums and libraries, and to forge an art that was entirely new and reflective of the machine age. Fillia became a key figure in what is often termed "Second Futurism," which emerged after World War I and saw the movement diversify and, in some ways, grapple with the rise of Fascism.
Fillia was particularly active in Turin, a city that became a significant center for this later phase of Futurism. He was not content to be a solitary artist; he was a networker, an organizer, and a propagandist for the cause. He co-founded Futurist groups, edited journals such as "Vetrina Futurista" (Futurist Showcase), and played a crucial role in organizing exhibitions that brought Futurist art to a wider public. His intellectual engagement extended to political activism, and he was known to associate with left-wing circles, including figures like Antonio Gramsci, a prominent Marxist thinker, though their collaboration was more intellectual and political than directly artistic in a painterly sense.
A Multifaceted Creative Force
Fillia's creative output was astonishingly diverse. While painting remained a central focus, his contributions to literature and criticism were substantial. He penned Futurist poetry that mirrored the dynamism and fragmented perspectives of his visual art. His plays sought to revolutionize the theater, breaking down traditional narrative structures and embracing the Futurist "synthesis" – short, sharp, and often provocative performances. As a novelist, he explored themes of modernity and the human condition within the rapidly changing Italian society.
His critical writings were instrumental in defining and promoting the evolving aesthetics of Second Futurism. He championed modern architecture and urban design, envisioning cities that would embody the Futurist ideals of dynamism and functionality, echoing the earlier architectural visions of Antonio Sant'Elia. Fillia even delved into the realm of "Futurist cooking," a playful yet serious attempt to extend the movement's principles into everyday life, challenging traditional culinary habits. This multifaceted approach underscores the Futurist ambition to permeate all aspects of culture.
The Evolution of Fillia's Artistic Style
Fillia's painting style underwent a discernible evolution, reflecting both his personal artistic journey and the broader shifts within Futurism.
Early Mechanical Aesthetics
In his early works from the mid-1920s, Fillia's paintings are characterized by a strong emphasis on mechanical forms, geometric decomposition, and a palette often dominated by pure, vibrant colors. Works like Self-Portrait (1924) and Mechanical Idol (1925-26) exemplify this phase. In Self-Portrait, the human form is rendered with a certain rigidity, composed of interlocking geometric shapes that suggest a fusion of man and machine. Mechanical Idol pushes this further, presenting a figure that is almost entirely abstracted into a series of cylinders, cones, and planes, celebrating the aesthetic power of the machine itself. This period shows an affinity with the "arte meccanica" (mechanical art) promoted by artists like Enrico Prampolini and Fortunato Depero, who also saw beauty and dynamism in the industrial world.
Towards Abstraction and Spirituality
By the late 1920s, Fillia's art began to move towards a greater degree of abstraction and, significantly, a more pronounced spiritual or mystical dimension. While the geometric underpinnings remained, his forms became less overtly mechanical and more suggestive of inner states or cosmic forces. Paintings such as The Drama (1929) and The Lovers (1929) illustrate this shift. The Drama uses dynamic, swirling forms and a more complex interplay of light and shadow to evoke a sense of emotional intensity or unfolding events, moving beyond simple representation. The Lovers similarly employs abstract, intertwined shapes to convey intimacy and connection, but in a language that transcends literal depiction. This turn towards a more spiritual or idealized abstraction was a notable feature of some strands of Second Futurism, seeking to imbue the machine age with a sense of wonder and transcendence.
Sacred Futurism: A Spiritual Dimension
One of Fillia's most distinctive contributions was his involvement in "Arte Sacra Futurista" (Sacred Futurist Art). This sub-movement, which he actively promoted and theorized, sought to reconcile the avant-garde principles of Futurism with religious themes. This might seem contradictory, given Futurism's initial anti-clerical and anti-traditional stance. However, for Fillia and others, it represented an attempt to revitalize religious art, to express spiritual ideas through a modern, dynamic visual language. His sacred works often feature stylized figures, celestial imagery, and a sense of cosmic energy, rendered with the characteristic Futurist emphasis on movement and light. Some art historians interpret this engagement with sacred themes as a subtle form of protest or an attempt to find a spiritual anchor amidst the political compromises and growing authoritarianism of the Fascist era, which had, by then, co-opted certain aspects of Futurism for its own nationalistic purposes.
Aeropainting and the Fascination with Flight
Fillia was also a key proponent and practitioner of "Aeropittura" (Aeropainting), a major development within Second Futurism that emerged in the late 1920s and flourished in the 1930s. Inspired by the exhilarating experience of flight, Aeropainting sought to capture the dynamic perspectives, dizzying speeds, and aerial landscapes encountered from an airplane. Fillia's aeropaintings often depict swirling cloudscapes, bird's-eye views of cities, and the powerful forms of aircraft, all rendered with a sense of vertiginous movement and atmospheric depth. He, along with artists like Gerardo Dottori, Tullio Crali, and Benedetta Cappa Marinetti (F.T. Marinetti's wife and a significant artist in her own right), helped to define this genre, which became one of the most enduring and recognizable facets of later Futurism. These works celebrated technological prowess and the new sensory experiences opened up by aviation.
Key Themes and Ideologies
Several recurring themes and ideological concerns permeate Fillia's diverse body of work. The celebration of modernity, technology, and the machine is, of course, central, aligning him with the core tenets of Futurism. His exploration of mechanical forms and the dynamism of urban life reflects this fascination. However, Fillia's Futurism was not monolithic. His later turn towards spirituality and abstraction suggests a desire to find deeper meaning within the modern experience, to go beyond the purely material aspects of the machine age.
His engagement with "Sacred Futurism" points to a complex relationship with tradition and spirituality, seeking to innovate even in realms often considered conservative. Furthermore, Fillia's work in the late 1920s began to show an increasing interest in themes of femininity and gender, exploring these subjects through his evolving abstract language. This was a departure from the often overtly masculine and sometimes misogynistic rhetoric of early Futurism, indicating a broadening of thematic concerns within the movement's second wave. His political leanings, though complex and debated, suggest an artist deeply engaged with the social and political transformations of his era.
Fillia and the Wider Futurist Constellation
Fillia did not operate in a vacuum. He was an integral part of a network of artists, writers, and intellectuals who collectively shaped the course of Futurism. His relationship with F.T. Marinetti, the movement's founder and tireless promoter, was crucial. While Marinetti provided the overarching ideological framework, artists like Fillia were instrumental in translating these ideas into diverse visual and literary forms.
In Turin, Fillia collaborated with and influenced a local group of Futurists, helping to establish the city as a key center for the movement. He was a contemporary of other important Second Futurist figures like Enrico Prampolini, whose work also explored mechanical themes and abstraction, and Fortunato Depero, known for his playful, puppet-like figures and his extension of Futurist aesthetics into design and theater. Fillia's engagement with Aeropainting connected him with specialists in that genre, such as Gerardo Dottori, whose lyrical aerial landscapes are iconic, and Tullio Crali, famed for his dramatic and immersive depictions of flight. He would also have been aware of the work of Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, whose "aeropaintings" and abstract compositions were highly regarded.
While direct artistic collaborations in the sense of co-painting were not his primary mode of operation, his collaborations in publishing, organizing exhibitions, and formulating manifestos were vital to the collective Futurist enterprise. His intellectual exchanges with figures beyond the immediate art world, such as his reported interactions with Antonio Gramsci, highlight the interdisciplinary nature of avant-garde circles in Italy at the time. He also would have been aware of the legacy of the first generation Futurists like Boccioni, whose theories on dynamism continued to resonate, and Balla, whose studies of movement and light remained influential. Even artists like Ardengo Soffici, who had a complex relationship with Futurism, moving in and out of the movement, contributed to the rich artistic dialogue of the period.
Political Engagements and Intellectual Circles
Fillia's life and work were intertwined with the turbulent political climate of interwar Italy. His involvement in left-wing political activities, including factory councils, suggests a commitment to social change that went beyond purely artistic concerns. This positions him interestingly within Futurism, a movement that, while revolutionary in its artistic aims, had a complex and often problematic relationship with Fascism. Some Futurists, including Marinetti, initially aligned themselves with Mussolini, seeing Fascism as a vehicle for national renewal and modernization.
However, Fillia's trajectory, particularly his later emphasis on spirituality and his reported left-wing sympathies, suggests a more nuanced, perhaps even critical, stance. His exploration of "Sacred Futurism" can be seen, in part, as an attempt to carve out a space for spiritual and humanistic values within a movement increasingly co-opted by a totalitarian regime. The intellectual ferment of Turin, with its strong working-class movements and prominent intellectuals like Gramsci, undoubtedly influenced Fillia's worldview. His magazine "La Città Futurista" (The Futurist City) and "La Città Nuova" (The New City) also became platforms for discussing not just art but also urbanism and social ideals.
Achievements, Legacy, and Untimely End
Fillia's specific artistic awards are not widely documented in the same way as some of his contemporaries. His primary achievement lies in his prolific and influential contribution to the development and dissemination of Second Futurism. He was a vital organizer, a theorist who helped articulate the evolving aims of the movement, and a versatile artist whose work spanned multiple disciplines. His efforts in promoting "Sacred Futurism" and "Aeropainting" were particularly significant, helping to define these important currents within Italian modernism.
Tragically, Fillia's dynamic career was cut short. He succumbed to tuberculosis in 1936, at the young age of 31. His premature death was a significant loss to the Futurist movement and to Italian art. Despite his short life, he produced an extensive body of work and left a lasting legacy as one of the most inventive and intellectually engaged figures of Second Futurism. His paintings are held in various public and private collections, and his writings continue to be studied by scholars of 20th-century avant-garde movements.
While perhaps not as globally recognized as the first-generation Futurists, Fillia's role in sustaining and evolving the movement, in pushing its boundaries into new thematic and stylistic territories, and in fostering a vibrant artistic community in Turin, is undeniable. His work serves as a compelling testament to the enduring power of the Futurist vision and its capacity for adaptation and renewal, even in the face of profound social and political upheaval.
Conclusion
Luigi "Fillia" Colombo was a quintessential Futurist: dynamic, multifaceted, and passionately committed to forging a new artistic language for a new era. From his early explorations of mechanical aesthetics to his later engagement with spiritual abstraction, sacred themes, and the exhilarating perspectives of Aeropainting, Fillia's art charts a fascinating course through the complex landscape of interwar Italian modernism. As a painter, poet, writer, and organizer, he embodied the Futurist ideal of the artist as a transformative force in society. Though his life was brief, his creative energy and innovative spirit ensured his place as a key protagonist in the continuing story of Futurism, leaving behind a body of work that continues to intrigue and inspire. His contributions highlight the richness and diversity of the Futurist movement beyond its initial, explosive beginnings, demonstrating its capacity for introspection, spiritual inquiry, and sustained creative evolution.
