Ardengo Soffici (1879 - 1964)

Ardengo Soffici

Ardengo Soffici was an Italian artist and art critic. One of the founders of futurism. Supported Fascism.

Ardengo Soffici entered the Florence Academy of Fine Arts in 1897, then went on to study painting in Paris, where he became an art critic and illustrator in 1904. During this period he meets Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Gino Severini and Guillaume Apollinaire. From 1908 he works for a new magazine "La Voce", in which he publishes a number of his essays on contemporary French painting and literature. Strongly influenced by Cubism since his Paris trip, Ardengo Soffici sharply criticises Futurist painting in his articles.