Bruno Munari
Complicating is easy, simplifying is difficult
Bruno Munari (Milán, 1907-1998) was one of the most significant 20th-century figures of visual communication and design. He sought out the essence of art and design in an equilibrium of rigour and lightness, employing playfulness, humour and irony. Some of his works are present in the retrospective organised by the Juan March Foundation Museum in Palma, which runs until 4 February 2023.
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In the words of Manuel Fontán del Junco, director of exhibitions at the Juan March Foundation, “Munari had a Peter Pan-like timeless imagination, the eternal child and eternal play”. For the art curator Marco Meneguzzo, “experimenting is Munari’s verb, because in experimenting, it is as though he extended the boundary of his own world”.
Munari’s artistic origins coincided with the second-generation Futurists. But he soon realised that if they wanted to highlight the splendour of machines, speed and mutation, they could not communicate it using static media such as painting and sculpture, which halted movement. “Why not free these forms in space, suspend them from threads so that they turn with the movement of the air, and are continuously being composed, with the compositions moving all the time?’’, he asked.
At the same time as he developed his artistic side, Bruno Munari carried out extremely relevant work as a graphic designer. He was advisor to Italian companies like Mondadori and Einaudi, and the soul of the Danese brand, for which he designed pieces like the Cubo ashtray, which form part of the history of global design. “My starting point is always technique, not art. With technique as the starting point, you always know how far you can go. Complicating is easy, simplifying is difficult”.
Munari’s work revolves around two main ideas: [...]
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