WHAT? Breaking Lines: Futurism and the Origins of Experimental Poetry 

WHERE? Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art , 39a Canonbury Square , London N1 2AN

WHEN? Now until 11th May 

WHY GO?  For the art of words.  This new exhibition of verbal gymnastics is inspiring if you love letters, puzzles, word scapes and feel the urge to join dots together rather like the kits we loved as kids.

It’s all about ‘concrete poetry’, a term coined in the Sixties that defines graphic patterns of letters, words, sentences or symbols created any which way to look artistic.

Rarely highlighted nowadays, this curious exhibition embodies its very essence. Experimental or concrete poetry was a groundbreaking symbolic form of art calligraphy within the whole Futurist movement and originated as far back initially as 1909.

This stylishly staged graphic artists' dream of an exhibition gets to grips with the concept which was so avant-garde at the time. 

Words, lines, sentences, letters of the alphabet and even musical notes are arranged to create images as monumental as the famous ‘word towers ‘ that visual artist John Furnival, a main advocate, was known for. 

His work and those of early and contemporary Futurist scholars, namely a Benedictine monk called Dom Sylvester Houedard, represent the movement and their abstract artworks create a dizzying fusion of typography that does occasionally feel like staring at an optician’s eye test chart!

IN THE KNOW This is distinctly different for the Italian Art Gallery since several of the artists represented are not in fact Italian but their united link is an association with Futurism for which the gallery is famed.

Thespians will enjoy delving deep into the origins of this radical show which defies traditional ways of ‘writing’ verse by turning words into pictures.