Thayaht. Futurista irregolare

This monograph is dedicated to Ernesto Michahelles, Thayaht in art, a multi-faceted character who was active in many different fields of artistic production, including sculpture, painting, fashion and set design. Thayaht made a significant and original contribution to twentieth-century Italian art and was part of the Futurist movement.
Known primarily for having invented an item of clothing which today is universally worn - the "track suit" or "tuta" in Italian, which the artist conceived and gave name to - Thayaht was very active between 1915 and the beginning of the Second World War in different spheres of artistic production: painting, designing fashion items and pieces for interiors, creating sets and costumes for theatre productions, making decorative art objects, and contributing in a noteworthy way to Italian sculpture and more within the Futurist movement.
The monograph, which is the catalogue to the exhibition at the Mart in Rovereto, presents the artist's entire sculpture oeuvre and a large part of his abstract graphic works, his paintings, designs and creations for fashion, his advertising work and decorative art objects. The aim is to bring together Thayaht's diverse activities - which up to now have been explored separately - so as to identify the unifying creative thought in the production of this original artist who never accepted hierarchies in art and ideas.
The publication has an introduction by Gabriella Belli and contains essays by Mirella Duci and Daniela Fonti, a catalogue of the works (edited by Paola Bonani, Carla Cerutti) divided into sections dedicated to the artist's debut, fashion, decorative motifs, applied arts, sculpture and painting. This is followed by the Incontri chapter with the ideas of Fosco Maraini, Carla Cerutti, Fortunato Bellonzi and Tullio Crali, a biography of the artist (by Alessandra Scappini), list of exhibitions (edited by Federico Zanoner) and a bibliography (edited by Federico Zanoner).

Born in Florence in 1893 in an Anglo-Swiss family, Thayaht had an international education, and studied in France and the United States. In 1919 he invented, together with his brother Ruggero (Ram) - the model for the "tuta". In Paris at the beginning of the 1920s he collaborated with Madeleine Vionnet's atelier.
In 1929 he met Marinetti and became part of the Futurist group, participating in the Mostra trentatrè futuristi at the Pesaro gallery in Milan. In 1932 together with Ram he signed the Manifesto per la trasformazione dell'abbigliamento maschile. He also participated in numerous exhibitions, such as the decorative art exhibitions in Monza in 1923 and 1927; throughout the 1930s he took part in the Roman quadrennial (1931), the Venice Biennales, and the Milan Triennials of 1933 and 1936. He retired to Marina di Pietrasanta, deepening his scientific and astronomical studies, and in the post World War Two period, he founded CIRNOS (Independent Centre for the collection of news relating to space observations).