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GERARDO DOTTORI (Perugia 1884 - 1977) PORTRAIT OF RUGGERO VASARI (1926)
Black chalk, stumped. Signed 'Dottori'. 308 x 208 mm. Backed. On the backing stamped 'DOTTORI FUTURISTA'.
LITERATURE: Guido Ballo, 'Dottori aeropittore futurista', Rome, 1970; no. 64, illustrated.
Galleria Fonte d'Abisso, 'Futurismo Italiano', Modena, 1986; no. 83, illustrated.
Benedetta, 'Fughe e ritorni. Presenze futuriste in Sicilia'. Exhibition catalogue, Palermo, 1998; illustrated p. 73.
Ruggero Vasari (1898-1968) was a leading intellectual of the Futurist Movement. A poet and a dramatist, Vasari lived in Berlin, there opening an art gallery devoted to the diffusion of futurist art and founding the magazine 'Der Futurismus'.

Dottori was admitted as a young man to the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia. In 1906 he worked as a decorator in Milan, where he was able to visit museums and exhibitions. In 1911 Dottori went to Rome where he met Giacomo Balla and became an adherent of Futurism. In 1924 he participated in the Futurist Congress; in the same year he exhibited at the Venice Biennale. From 1926 to 1939 Dottori lived in Rome, contributing to various art magazines. In 1925 he exhibited at the Permanente and in 1927 at the Galleria Pesaro in the first of a series of Futurist exhibitions, including a one-man show in 1931. Dottori's major contribution to Futurism was 'Aeropittura' (aeropainting). He was one of the signatories of the 1929 Aeropainting Manifesto, signed also by Benedetta, Depero, Fillia, Marinetti, Prampolini, Somenzi and Tato.