Bruno Munari was born in Milan but spent his childhood and teenage years in Badia Polesine, where his family had relocated to run a hotel.[2] In 1926 he returned to Milan where he started to work with his uncle, who was an engineer. In 1927, he started to follow Marinetti and the Futurist movement, displaying his work in many exhibitions. Three years later he associated with Riccardo Castagnedi (Ricas), with whom he worked as a graphic designer until 1938. During a trip to Paris, in 1933, he met Louis Aragon and André Breton. From 1938 to September 1943 he worked as a press graphic designer for Mondadori, and as art director of Tempo Magazine and Grazia, two magazines owned by Mondadori. At the same time he began designing books for children, originally created for his son Alberto.[3]
Futurism
Bruno Munari joined the 'Second' Italian Futurist movement in Italy led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the late 1920s. During this period, Munari contributed collages to Italian magazines, some of them highly propagandist, and created sculptural works which would unfold in the coming decades including his useless machines, and his abstract-geometrical works.[4] After World War II Munari disassociated himself with Italian Futurism because of its proto-Fascist connotations.[5]
Later life
In 1948, Munari, Gillo Dorfles, Gianni Monnet and Atanasio Soldati, founded Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC),[6] the Italian movement for concrete art. During the 1940s and 1950s, Munari produced many objects for the Italian design industry, including light fixtures, ashtrays, televisions, espresso machines, and toys among other objects.[7]
Cubo ashtray designed for Danese Milano (1957)Falkland pendant light designed for Danese Milano
In his later life, Munari, worried by the incorrect perception of his artistic work, which is still confused with the other genres of his activity (didactics, design, graphics), selected art historian Miroslava Hajek as curator of a selection of his most important works in 1969. This collection, structured chronologically, shows his continuous creativity, thematic coherence and the evolution of his aesthetic philosophy throughout his artistic life.
Munari was also a significant contributor in the field of children's books and toys, later in his life, though he had been producing books for children since the 1930s. He used textured, tactile surfaces and cut-outs to create books that teach about touch, movement, and colour through kinesthetic learning.
Munari, Bruno; Scheiwiller, Giovanni (1963). Good design. Milan: All'insegna del pesce d'oro (later Scheiwiller Editore)
Munari, Bruno (1966). Arte come mestiere [Design as Art (literally: Art as Craft]. ISBN978-0-14-103581-9.
Munari, Bruno (1968). Design e comunicazione visiva. Contributo a una metodologia didattica [Design and Visual Communication. Contributions to a Teaching Method]. Roma-Bari: Laterza
Munari, Bruno (1971). Artista e designer [Artist and Designer]. Roma-Bari: Laterza
Munari, Bruno (1971). Codice ovvio [Obvious Code]. Turin: Einaudi
Supplemento al Dizionario Italiano. Mantova, Italy: Corraini. 2014
The following are included in Design as Art. They have also been published individually:
The Triangle. Mantova, Italy: Corraini. 2007.
The Discovery of the Circle. New York: G. Wittenborn. (English translation by Marcello and Edna Maestro.) 1965.
Discovery of the Square. New York: George Wittenborn. (English translation by Desmond O'Grady.) 1965.
Educational games and workshops
From 1988 to 1992 Munari collaborated personally in the educational workshops of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato, training the internal staff, namely Barbara Conti and Riccardo Farinelli, who will continue and coordinate the museum workshops on an ongoing basis until 2014.
Le costruzioni in legno "Scatola di architettura" for Castelletti (1945)
I giocattoli Gatto Meo (1949) and Scimmietta Zizì (1953) for Pirelli
From 1959 to 1976, various games for Danese (Proiezioni dirette, ABC, Labirinto, Più e meno, Metti le foglie, Strutture, Trasformazioni, Dillo coi segni, Immagini della realtà)
^G. D. Silk. “The Photo Collages of Bruno Munari.” in Cultural and Artistic Upheavals in Modern Europe 1848 to 1945. Sally Metzler and Elizabeth Lovett College (Jacksonville, FL: Cummer Museum of Art, 1996), pp. 41–76.
^Hájek, Miroslava, “Bruno Munari, Futurista." From 2012. Bruno Munari: my futurist past. Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana
Miroslava Hajek, Luca Zaffarano, Bruno Munari: my futurist past, Silvana Editorale, 2012, ISBN978-88-36624-75-1.
Miroslava Hajek, Luca Panaro, Fantasia esatta i colori della luce di Bruno Munari, APM edizioni, 2008, ISBN978-88-89109-28-1.
Francesco Franco, Gianni Rodari e Bruno Munari. I cinque libri: racconti e disegni brevi, in "Bollettino '900", 2007, n. 1–2, [2].
Francesco Franco, Bruno Munari. Dalla copertina alla coperta, fino al riciclaggio del ciclo, in "BTA – Bollettino Telematico dell’Arte", 21/3/2007, n. 451, [3].
Miriam Nocchi Croccolo, Un progetto a lungo termine. I laboratori di Bruno Munari, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2005.
Bruno Corà, Pietro Bellasi, Alberto Fiz, Miroslava Hajek, Guido Magnaguagno, Tinguely e Munari. Opere in azione, Mazzotta Editore, Milano 2004, ISBN88-202-1693-0.
Giorgio Maffei, Munari: i libri, Sylvestre Bonnard, 2002.
Claude Lichtenstein, Alfredo Haberli – Air Made Visible: A Visual Reader on Bruno Munari, Lars Muller, 2000.
Beppe Finessi, Su Munari – Abitare Segesta, 1999.
Alberto Fiz, Omaggio a Bruno Munari, Mazzotta editore, Milano 1999.
Miroslava Hajek, Bruno Munari, Revue Svetovej Literatury, 1997 n°1, page 145.
Miroslava Hajek, Bruno Munari, Instalace edizioni GKK 1997, ISBN80-85628-24-4.
Mostra di Bruno Munari, inventore artista scrittore designer architetto grafico gioca con i bambini, Corraini Editore, Milano 1995.
Marco Meneguzzo, Bruno Munari Mostra Collettiva, Adulti e bambini in zone inesplorate, Corraini Editore, Milano 1994.
Marco Meneguzzo, Bruno Munari, Laterza, 1993.
Marco Meneguzzo, Munari '50, La bellezza come funzione, Corraini Editore, 1991.
