Written quotation by Gino Severini, in the introduction to the catalogue of Severini's exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, London, April 1913. (not connected to the present - day Marlborough) Cited in the Archivi del Futurismo edited by maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori (Rome: De Luca, 1958).

'We chose to concentrate our attention on things in motion because our modern sensibility is particularly qualified to grasp the idea of speed. Heavy powerful motorcars rushing through the streets of our cities, dancers reflected in the fairy ambiance of light and colour, airplanes flying above the heads of the excited throng... Those sources of emotion satisfy our sense of a lyric and dramatic universe, better than do two pairs and an apple.'

Italian painter, designer and writer on art. Born in Cortona, Severini settled in Paris in 1906 and in the next few years met Modigliani, Braque, Picasso and other leading artists of the School of Paris.

Gino Severini, Self portrait, 1909, oil on canvas, 48.5 X 28.5cm.
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2004