Fortunato Depero

Although born in Fondo or in the neighboring village of Malosco, according to other sources (in the Italian Trentino region, at that time the County of Tyrol in the Austrian-Hungarian empire),[1] Depero grew up in Rovereto and it was here he first began exhibiting his works, while serving as an apprentice to a marble worker.

It was on a 1913 trip to Florence that he discovered a copy of the paper Lacerba and an article by one of the founders of the futurism movement, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

The city was still reeling from the effects of the Wall Street crash so his paintings did not sell while the Futurist House, his first commercial enterprise there closed after barely two months of operations.

[7] He experienced a degree of success later on, doing costumes for stage productions and designing covers for magazines including MovieMaker, The New Yorker and Vogue, among others.

From the winter of 1947 to late October 1949 Depero lived in a cottage in New Milford, Connecticut, relaxing and continuing with his long-standing plans to open a museum.

On 29 November 1960, after being ill with diabetes and spending the last two years unable to paint due to hemiparesis, Depero died aged 68 in Rovereto.

[9] A number of important artists, thinkers, and architects worked on the Casa with Depero―especially those who were from the region―including Fausto Melotti, Gino Pollini, and Carlo Belli.

[11] His full-color designs followed Futurist color schemes featuring red, brown, ocher and the occasional accents of bright blue or aqua.