Gerardo Dottori biography

Gerardo Dottori, born in Perugia on 11 November 1884, was an Italian painter among the leading exponents of the Italian Futurist movement. The eldest son of Ezio, a mattress craftsman, and Colomba Luisa Gambini, who died prematurely when Gerardo was only eight years old, grew up in a family of humble origins.
His artistic training began at a very young age at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, where he attends evening courses. During this period, Gerardo Dottori also worked in an antiques and restoration shop run by Mariano Rocchi, an environment that allowed him to hone his artistic skills. Between 1906 and 1907, he temporarily moved to Milan to work as a decorator, before returning to academic studies and starting to frequent avant-garde artistic circles in Florence.
In 1910, Gerardo Dottori began his collaboration with the magazine The Defense of Art, marking an important first step in his career. The turning point came in 1911, when he met Giacomo Balla in Rome and joined Futurism . In this period, he reunited the first Umbrian futurist group and in 1915 he enlisted for the Great War, while continuing to paint and write stories.
After the war, Gerardo Dottori founded the futurist magazine Griffa! in Perugia, with the aim of spreading the ideas of the movement. In the same year, he held his first solo exhibition in Rome. His greatest contribution to Futurism manifested itself in Aeropittura, of which he became one of the main exponents, signing the Manifesto dell'Aeropittura in 1931 together with Marinetti, Balla e Prampolini.
Between 1925 and the end of the 1930s, Gerardo Dottori lived in Rome, writing in various art magazines and participating in numerous editions of the Venice Biennale. In 1932, he was cited in the Manifesto of Futurist Sacred Art for his commitment also to sacred subjects. During his career, Gerardo Dottori remained faithful to Futurism, even after the decline of the movement. His works, often depicting landscapes and visions of Umbria , are characterized by images perceived from great heights. Among the most famous are Umbrian Spring and Fire in the city.
In 1939, he won the chair of Painting at the Academy of Perugia and became its director the following year, a position he held until 1947. During the Second World War, he wrote the Umbrian Manifesto of aeropainting, reiterating his artistic vision.
Even in the last years of his life, Gerardo Dottori continued to exhibit his his works in important retrospectives on Futurism, both in Italy and abroad. He died in Perugia on 13 June 1977, leaving a significant artistic legacy, particularly in Umbrian landscape representations, where he combines the totalitarian and dynamic vision typical of Futurism with a profound mystical and contemplative sense of nature.