(b Reggio di Calabria, 19 Oct. 1882; d Sorte, nr. Verona, 17 Aug. 1916). Italian Futurist painter, sculptor (the only major one in the movement), and art theorist. He signed the two Futurist manifestos of painting (both 1910), wrote the one on sculpture (1912), and became the most energetic member of the group. Advocating a complete break with the art of the past, Boccioni was centrally concerned with the two main preoccupations of the Futurists—the production of emotionally expressive works and the representation of time and movement. In his early Futurist works he often showed an interest in social themes, particularly big city life, but later (especially after a visit to Paris in 1912, when he was influenced by Cubism) he tended to use his paintings more as vehicles for his theories than as comments on life around him.