Versari’s new article in “Materia” traces the material lives of Italian Futurist artworks through never-before-studied archival records, revealing how restoration decisions impact interpretation and legacy.

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In her newly published article in Materia. Journal of Technical Art History (Issue 5), Professor Maria Elena Versari uncovers how a forgotten trove of restoration records reshapes our understanding of key works from the Italian Futurist movement. Titled “The Adventure of a Feather, a Glass Ball, and a Seahorse: Methodological Reflections on the Material History of Futurist Artworks” and published in both English and Italian, the essay traces how Futurist pieces by artists including Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Luigi Russolo, Enrico Prampolini, and Umberto Boccioni were altered — sometimes drastically — over time.

The story begins in 1958, when three polymaterial works by Enrico Prampolini arrived damaged in the United States. The correspondence that followed between collectors Harry Winston and Linda Kahn Winston (later Malbin) and the artist’s brother opened the door to decades of restoration documentation. These materials, now housed in the Winston Malbin archive, offer a rare look into the physical interventions that artworks undergo and how curatorial judgment and aesthetic bias influence their preservation.

Versari argues that this type of material history, often left out of catalogues raisonnés and institutional databases, should be considered essential to art historical scholarship. Her research calls for a more rigorous integration of restoration data into the way we write, study, and exhibit art.

_{Image: Enrico Prampolini, Automatismo polimaterico F, 1941, collage and oil on board 32,4 x 40.6 cm, Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection, Lugano.}

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