Radical Light: Italy’s Divisionist Painters, 1891-1910

Italian Divisionism was arguably the most significant art movement in Italy during the last decades of the 19th century. Often misinterpreted as a simple derivative of French Neo-Impressionism, Divisionism actually diverged from the French school in both aims and results. Italian Divisionists were motivated by a basic dissatisfaction with modern civilization and a desire both to endow art with a scientific approach and make it an instrument of social change. At the same time, their work was often deeply Symbolist in character.

This book features many first-generation Divisionists, including Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Giovanni Segantini, and Gaetano Previati, together with Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, and others who later launched the Futurist movement, yet were profoundly influenced by Divisionism.