by Valentina Biondini, art and literature amateur
Benedetta Cappa was a multifaceted 20th-century Italian artist: painter, writer, set designer… Often obscured, she nevertheless possessed a vibrant personality, so much so that she soon adopted her first name as her pen name, both in her writings and paintings: Benedetta.
Wife of the much better-known Marinetti, Cappa not only served as companion or muse to her husband artist, but was also an energetic and gifted painter within the Futurist movement, which she promoted overseas after her husband’s death. Thanks to her, Futurism developed a sort of parallel female consciousness and the artist, over time, became a much-admired leader among the movement’s members.
As usual, before “interviewing” our guest, let’s take a look at her biography. Benedetta Cappa was born in 1897 in Rome to a wealthy Piedmontese family, who provided her with a rigorous education. Her early artistic training took place in the studio of the Futurist Giacomo Balla. It was there, in 1918, that she met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who said of her: “I admire the genius of Benedetta, she is my equal, not my disciple.” Cappa thus impressed the leader of Futurism, and an intellectual friendship blossomed into love, sealed with marriage in 1920.
Her early works reveal a stylistic connection with her master Balla, but later her artistic language became independent, and her encounter with Marinetti proved to be crucial from an artistic perspective, as it pushed her toward a Futurist evolution in her painting. Her official membership in the Futurist group dates back to 1919, the year that also coincided with the beginning of her career. But already in the drawing Psicologia di un uomo from the previous year, given to Marinetti after their first meeting, she immediately made her position clear regarding the group’s acclaimed misogyny. The drawing, in fact, a true document of proto-feminism, is an ironic representation of the male universe and its qualities. It is a sort of psychological portrait of man and, more precisely, of Marinetti, who curiously signed it “Benedetta among women, Futurist lyricist.”
In 1924 she participated in the First National Futurist Congress held in Milan. She was subsequently invited five times to the Rome Quadrennial and the same number of times to the Venice Biennale. In 1930 she was the first woman to have her work published in the Biennale catalog, a remarkable achievement to say the least. Between the 1920s and 1930s he focused on aeropainting – a development of Futurism based on the vision of the world from above, from an airplane, a symbol of modernity – and in 1929 he signed the “Manifesto dell’Aeropittura Futurista” together with Balla, Depero, Prampolini, Dottori, Fillia and Marinetti himself.
The advances in aviation, coinciding with the Great War, provided her with the opportunity to conceive perhaps the most beautiful creations of her career: the image she creates is the product of her imagination, and her air travel is the starting point for expressing her creativity. In Aeropittura di un Incontro con l’Isola (1935-36), a painting of original and surreal poetry, she depicts part of an island (perhaps Elba, where she spent her holidays) stripped of its peculiarities, almost a thousand years old and pristine, seemingly floating in a vast expanse of water and partially encased in a transparent sphere. In 1936, she worked on what many consider her artistic masterpiece, Cime arse di Solitudine, but also emblematic is Luce + voci di treno notturno (light and noises of a night train) (oil and collage on canvas, 1925).
Her production came to an abrupt end in 1944, after Marinetti’s death, when she decided to devote herself exclusively to the dissemination of Futurist works, including overseas and especially in America, where she befriended the famous art collector Peggy Guggenheim. Death overtook her, after a long illness, in Venice in 1977.
Here I am, Benedetta, the Futurist, and not just Marinetti’s wife. What I would like to say to sum up my life is that I have lived to the full the many roles I have held: painter, writer, poet, wife, mother, and, ultimately, leader of the Futurist movement, in Italy and overseas. From a young age, I sensed that the female soul was only at the dawn of its artistic expression and that the field of artistic possibilities was still vast and rich with inspiration for women who, in my opinion, were, and are, capable of creating without having to ape or copy male experiences.
In my numerous writings and the debates in which I have participated, I have always challenged male hegemony and emphasized instead the spirituality and virility of the woman who is creator in art and mother in nature. Despite these positions, I joined the Futurist movement with conviction and, within a few years, achieved a real reversal within it: suddenly, space was created for female voices as well. In any case, I never accepted the idea that women should be completely freed from domestic duties because I always believed in our innate ability to manage all of life’s commitments, both at home and outside.
Are you now asking me about my artistic experience? Well, as for my art, I can only tell you that, while always starting from reality, it has never been veristic. In fact, I have always distanced myself from verism, in a constant effort towards synthesis, abstraction, and fantasy! And it is undeniable that flying and my husband, thanks to whom I had the opportunity to experience it during our many plane trips, helped me greatly in approaching the ideal of art to which I have always aspired. So many memories of a life interwoven with art, that I will never forget!
As is well known, after World War II, Futurism entered a period of obscurity and ideological condemnation due to its involvement with Fascism, and this fact prompting Cappa to officially close the militant movement in the 1950s. On the other hand, however, her artistic mission was not yet over, so she began to tirelessly promote the group’s works worldwide. This commitment undoubtedly bore fruit, as much of the existing body of work is due to his work in recovery and dissemination.