Looking at the landscape from above means discovering relationships that remain invisible from the ground: fields become geometries, hills follow one another like waves, and roads trace trajectories through space. Gerardo Dottori made this transformation of perspective the focus of original research, bringing Futurism into dialogue not only with the speed of machines and cities but also with the dynamism of nature. His interpretation of Aeropittura retains a deep connection with Umbria, a region that becomes the starting point for increasingly expansive and synthesized visions.
Training and Encounter with Futurism
Born in Perugia in 1884, Dottori studied at the city's Academy of Fine Arts and took an early interest in decorative painting. After a stay in Milan between 1906 and 1907, he returned to Umbria and also worked on murals for civic and religious buildings. This experience was important because it accustomed him to conceiving images in relation to large surfaces and architectural spaces. L'meeting with Giacomo Balla and his adoption of Futurism around 1911 opened a new chapter: the challenge was no longer simply to represent what one sees, but to make perceptible the energy coursing through things.
In 1912, he helped form the Umbrian Futurist group. While other members of the movement focused mainly on industrial modernity, Dottori saw the landscape as equally fertile ground for experimenting with speed, simultaneity, and changing perspectives. Works such as Red Explosion on Green, dating from the early years of his Futurist research, reveal an interest in nature suffused with chromatic tensions and movements that transcend static representation. L'his work as a cultural promoter, also documented by his involvement with the magazine Griffa! in 1920, complemented his commitment to painting.
L'Aeropittura and the View from Above
His participation in the 1924 Venice Biennale marks an important moment in his career. In the following years, Dottori pursues his research with increasing determination, becoming one of the leading figures in Aeropittura, formalized in the 1931 manifesto. L'experience of flight offers a new way to organize space: the horizon can curve, viewpoints can multiply, and the landscape appears as a continuous system of relationships. Dottori does not necessarily seek to reproduce what a camera would see from an airplane. Rather, he reconstructs an overall perception in which the observer's movement changes the very shape of the landscape.
In this sense, his total landscape is not simply a panoramic view. It is an attempt to represent simultaneously elements that the traditional gaze would perceive at different times. Hills, fields, waters, and cities can be arranged along circular trajectories and flexible geometries, while color helps suggest continuity and movement. The painting thus becomes a perceptual experience rather than a topographical description.
L'Umbria, light, and monumental painting
L'Umbria remains the fundamental reference point for his imagination. Dottori does not abandon his native places when he joins a movement oriented toward the future; on the contrary, he transforms them through the language of the avant-garde. Light and chromatic contrasts bring out an energetic nature, far removed from the static image of the traditional landscape. This focus also finds expression in the Umbrian Manifesto of Aeropittura of 1941, which reaffirms the connection between his artistic research and the region.
At the same time, Dottori continues to work in mural decoration and sacred art, fields that show why his work cannot be confined to easel painting alone. Large surfaces allow him to experiment with the relationship between image and architecture, while his teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, which began in 1939, strengthens his ties to the city. This variety of experience makes him a particularly interesting figure within Italian Futurism.
Drawing, artworks, and artistic legacy
Drawing makes it possible to observe the process through which Dottori organizes perspectives, curves, and spatial relationships. His work also includes graphic designs and illustrations related to Futurist culture. However, when it comes to prints attributed to the artist, it is necessary to distinguish original graphic artworks from later reproductions of paintings: a printed Aeropittura image is not automatically an original lithograph or screenprint, and classification must be based on the documentation for the individual edition.
Dottori continues working even after the decline of Futurism and dies in Perugia in 1977. The subsequent reassessment of his work has highlighted the uniqueness of an artist capable of interpreting modern dynamism through Umbrian hills, lakes, and cities. His contribution to Aeropittura lies above all in transforming the landscape into a shifting vision in which color, space, and perception become inseparable.
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