Capturing Flight: Giannina Censi’s Aerofuturist Dance and the Evolution of 1930s Photography
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 9:20 PM
Description
Dr. Lucia Colombari, Assistant Professor of Art History and Arts Management, University of Oklahoma, U.S.A./
Capturing Flight: Giannina Censi’s Aerofuturist Dance and the Evolution of 1930s Photography
Italian Futurism emerged in the early 20th century as a response to rapid technological and societal changes. While it has long been perceived as a male-dominated artistic movement, recent scholarship indebted to gender studies has begun to revise this narrative, uncovering the significant contributions of women writers and artists. Among these overlooked figures, Giannina Censi stands out for her innovative artistic expression, in which she seamlessly blended photography with other dance and performance to capture the experience of mechanized flight.
This talk critically examines three photographs from Censi’s “Aerofuturist Dance” (1931) series, illuminating how her identity as both a woman artist and a Futurist profoundly influenced her photographic practice and representation. Censi embodies a disruptive force within Futurism, part of a group of women who developed multidisciplinary modes of expression in the 1920s and 1930s. The advent of aeropainting, a painterly language capturing the visual experience of flight, provided a new avenue for women Futurists to break artistic ground. Censi’s work exemplified this trend, blending novel approaches to dance with mechanical expressions inspired by aviation. Her photographic series imbued dance with dynamism, her exuberant gestures mimicking a plane in flight. Censi’s art uniquely combined her background in dance with aeropainting aesthetics and photography. Through this multimedia approach, she crafted a complex artistic narrative. Notably, she leveraged photography to portray herself in empowering and nuanced ways that expressed her Futurist identity.
By analyzing Censi’s photographs, we gain insight into the overlooked contributions of women to the Futurist movement and the innovative ways they navigated and expanded its boundaries. Moreover, the talk enhances and complicates our understanding of Futurist’s evolving relationship with photography. A neglected medium until the 1930s, it was later embraced to develop innovative photographic techniques that sought to express the ideological themes of the era.
Dr. Lucia Colombari is an Assistant Professor of Art History and Arts Management at the University of Oklahoma. A native of Bologna, Italy, her research lands at the intersection of 20th-century art, transnational exchange, and politics of exhibitions in museums and world’s expositions, with an emphasis on Italian modernism and cultural diplomacy. Dr. Colombari has published articles about Italian Futurism, Italy-U.S. cultural and political relations, exhibitionary practices, museum management and leadership in academic journals, edited volumes, and exhibition catalogues. At the University of Oklahoma, she is also part of the leadership team that developed and launched an MA in Arts Management. She holds a PhD in Art and Architectural History from the University of Virginia.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Colombari, Lucia, "Capturing Flight: Giannina Censi’s Aerofuturist Dance and the Evolution of 1930s Photography" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 61.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/61
Capturing Flight: Giannina Censi’s Aerofuturist Dance and the Evolution of 1930s Photography
Dr. Lucia Colombari, Assistant Professor of Art History and Arts Management, University of Oklahoma, U.S.A./
Capturing Flight: Giannina Censi’s Aerofuturist Dance and the Evolution of 1930s Photography
Italian Futurism emerged in the early 20th century as a response to rapid technological and societal changes. While it has long been perceived as a male-dominated artistic movement, recent scholarship indebted to gender studies has begun to revise this narrative, uncovering the significant contributions of women writers and artists. Among these overlooked figures, Giannina Censi stands out for her innovative artistic expression, in which she seamlessly blended photography with other dance and performance to capture the experience of mechanized flight.
This talk critically examines three photographs from Censi’s “Aerofuturist Dance” (1931) series, illuminating how her identity as both a woman artist and a Futurist profoundly influenced her photographic practice and representation. Censi embodies a disruptive force within Futurism, part of a group of women who developed multidisciplinary modes of expression in the 1920s and 1930s. The advent of aeropainting, a painterly language capturing the visual experience of flight, provided a new avenue for women Futurists to break artistic ground. Censi’s work exemplified this trend, blending novel approaches to dance with mechanical expressions inspired by aviation. Her photographic series imbued dance with dynamism, her exuberant gestures mimicking a plane in flight. Censi’s art uniquely combined her background in dance with aeropainting aesthetics and photography. Through this multimedia approach, she crafted a complex artistic narrative. Notably, she leveraged photography to portray herself in empowering and nuanced ways that expressed her Futurist identity.
By analyzing Censi’s photographs, we gain insight into the overlooked contributions of women to the Futurist movement and the innovative ways they navigated and expanded its boundaries. Moreover, the talk enhances and complicates our understanding of Futurist’s evolving relationship with photography. A neglected medium until the 1930s, it was later embraced to develop innovative photographic techniques that sought to express the ideological themes of the era.
Dr. Lucia Colombari is an Assistant Professor of Art History and Arts Management at the University of Oklahoma. A native of Bologna, Italy, her research lands at the intersection of 20th-century art, transnational exchange, and politics of exhibitions in museums and world’s expositions, with an emphasis on Italian modernism and cultural diplomacy. Dr. Colombari has published articles about Italian Futurism, Italy-U.S. cultural and political relations, exhibitionary practices, museum management and leadership in academic journals, edited volumes, and exhibition catalogues. At the University of Oklahoma, she is also part of the leadership team that developed and launched an MA in Arts Management. She holds a PhD in Art and Architectural History from the University of Virginia.
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