Museo d’arte Moderna e Contemporaneo di Trento e Roverto was host for exhibitions by two very different artists, El Lissitzky and Mario Radice. El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941) was an influential Russian avant garde painter and designer who helped develop Suprematism, together with his mentor Kazimir Malevich.He also developed a Suprematist style of his own, which he called Proun. His graphic design work influenced both the Bauhaus and the Constructivists. His most famous work is possibly his 1919 propaganda poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge. The MART exhibition included paintings, graphic design work, photographs and magazine designs.

El Lissitzky ‘The Constructor’ – self portrait (1924)

El Lissitzky ‘About two squares’ (1922)

The second artist exhibited at MART was the Italian abstract painter and architect Mario Radice (1898 – 1987). He was one of the first Italian artists to change from figurative to abstract art, much of his work then involving geometric shapes.

Mario Radice ‘La Partita di Pallone’ (1933)

Mario Radice ‘Crollo’ (1939 – 42)

Being in Rovereto for these exhibitions meant there was a great opportunity to also visit the house of the Italian Futurist artist Fortunato Depero (1892 – 1960), which holds an extensive collection of his work. Together with Giacomo Ballo, Depero wrote the Futurist manifesto Ricostruzione futurista dell’universo in 1915. Depero founded the ‘Casa d’arte futurista’ in Rovereto in 1919, which specialised in producing furniture, tapestries and toys in the Futurist style.