The Fedrizzi collection has around 95 works that are all by Fortunato Depero. Some have already been displayed at exhibitions about the artist, on Futurism or on specific subjects such as sport, speed, advertising… But this is the first time they are being displayed all together. The Venetian exhibition therefore offers a unique opportunity – not only to study the artist’s multifaceted personality, but also to understand the sense of the collector’s critical development, characterised by his frequent contact with the artist, first professionally but that then led to a close friendship that continued with his widow Rosetta Amadori after Depero’s death. Giuseppe Fedrizzi was an eye specialist. It was as such that he met and looked after Depero and his wife in the 1950s. This was a difficult period for the artist, marked by financial straits and a cultural and political atmosphere in which the burden of his past Fascist support was the reason for isolation and mockery. Futurism, both in Italy and across the Atlantic was associated with the pernicious period of the dictatorship and was no longer fashionable, at least anything produced after the death of Boccioni (1916). In this context, around 1947 Depero sold most of his masterpieces to his friend and collector Mattioli and was not invited to participate in either the 1952 Biennale or in the one in San Paolo the following year. In his seventies he was therefore disappointed, but had still not given up and was willing to fight. His works were evaluated at a ridiculous sum and Fedrizzi could have easily have had the most valuable ones, the paintings and tapestries. He decided, however to collect and document the various aspects of the artist’s creativity, covering a time span of over 40 years. Fedrizzi understood the importance of the artist’s development, in his attempt “to recreate the whole universe futuristically”, making it go beyond art galleries to become part of everyday life, from advertising to interior design, fashion to architecture, publishing to post art, without any sense of hierarchy. It is for this reason that the works in the collection, dated from 1914 to 1956 and including oils and tempera, but also preparatory and final drawings in Indian ink and charcoal, as well as sketches, collages, advertising sketches, intarsia in wood and coloured fabrics, projects for interior design and interlined lithographies, allow us to outline a complete portrait of the artist, and understand aspects that are not common knowledge, thus helping overturn certain common critical conceptions. Once the exhibition has ended, the collection will be given to the Musei Civici di Venezia and go to Ca’ Pesaro as a long-term loan.