Study for "Modern Idol" 1911

This small pencil drawing, Study for “Modern Idol” by Umberto Boccioni, captures a face caught in a storm of lines. You can almost see the artist circling around the subject, trying to pin down its essence. I wonder what Boccioni was thinking as he made it. What was he chasing? Was he trying to capture the likeness, or something else? The marks are raw and restless, almost vibrating with energy. The figure emerges from this chaos of marks, floating, becoming and unbecoming all at once. Even the hair, those hatched lines, feels like it’s in motion. I think that movement really gets to the core of Futurism, which Boccioni helped to establish. It’s about capturing the dynamism of modern life, the feeling of everything changing all at once. The conversation between artists goes on, and it's an invitation to us to join in, to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, and to find our own meanings in the dance of marks and shapes.