UNIQUE FORMS OF CONTINUITY IN SPACE
The original plaster still exists in the Museu de Arte Contemporânea in São Paulo, Brazil. But historical photographs make it clear that it has been heavily restored over the years.
Back to basics
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space started out as a plaster. There is no known record of Boccioni himself wanting to cast any of his plaster sculptures in metal during his lifetime, so the fact that Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is today almost universally represented as a bronze sculpture is not according to his wishes. F.T. Marinetti was the first to cast the work in bronze in 1933. His aim was to better preserve it for posterity, since the plaster had already started to deteriorate. To date 16 bronze copies have been cast, ten of which are copies of already existing bronzes (so called surmoulages).
Boccioni's original plaster of Unique Forms of Continuity in Space still exists, and is located at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo (MAC USP) in Brazil. When studying historical photographs it becomes very obvious that the plaster has changed its appearance over time. This is due to multiple restoration efforts (in 1960, 1971 and 1986) to patch up cracks and damages caused by wear and transports between museums and exhibitions. These deviations (1, red arrows) are even more apparent in the multiple bronze copies distributed around the world. This can be attributed to the casting process; details are invariably slightly changed or even lost in part due to the bronze shrinking as it cools.
In order to match Unique Forms of Continuity in Space more closely with the reconstructed striding sculptures, it was felt necessary to make a photogrammetic copy (essentially a 3D scan) of the bronze version, then digitally “reverse engineer” it back to its original state with the help of photographs of the 1913 plaster.
The Tate Modern bronze copy (cast in 1972) was digitised and used as a starting point for the process (2). An in-depth analysis and careful comparison of the 1913 photographs (3) with those of the Tate Modern bronze (4) provided the information needed for making the necessary sculptural changes. Overall, the emerging 1913 Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is much tauter and with sharper defined lines than the bronzes.
A small 1:4 scale 3D print of this reconstruction was exhibited at Estorick Collection in 2019 (5). It is currently the closest existing approximation to Boccioni's 1913 original conception of Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, and a full-scale version will be 3D printed in late 2021.
[Published April 2020]
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