The Basics of Futurism

So here are the basics of Futurism that I’ve found out so far:

Futurism is arguably one of the most important avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century. It was founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (photo shown), who was an Italian poet and novelist (and a very wealthy one at that). He wrote the first Futurist manifesto in 1909, which celebrated the dynamism of the machine age while also strongly negating the past: “”We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind…”

With this beginning, Marinetti and a group of other like-minded artists joined together with the aim to FREE Italy from the oppressive weight of her past and GLORIFY the modern world – MACHINERY, SPEED, VIOLENCE – in a series of exuberant manifestos (On that note, it’s worth pointing out that Marinetti was a friend of Mussolini, and so Futurism has also been associated with Fascism, thus making it a political-ideological, social and artistic entity).

Key Futurist artists (painters) include:
- Umberto Boccioni (“Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” 1913).
- Carlo Carrà (“The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli” 1911)
- Luigi Russolo (“The Art of Noises” manifesto 1913)
- Giacomo Balla (“Dog on a leash” 1912)
- Gino Severini (“Armored Train” 1915)
- Marcel Duchamp (“Nude Descending a Staircase No. 1” 1911)

(I found a Futurist blog that mentions these artists – it’s written in Portuguese but it’s well worth visiting for the great images. Click here to have a look).

Futurism also influenced the Russian Futurist movement, with artists such as Larionov, Goncharova, Malevich and Mayakovsky.

In terms of art styles, Futurist art can be divided up into four parts:
1) Influences from Cubism (e.g. “Boccioni’s “Lines of Force”)
2) Geometric abstracts from 1916 (Balla)
3) The machine art of the 1920s (cf. Russian Constructivism)
4) The Aeropittura (‘aero-painting’) of the 1930s

Apart from the visual arts, Futurism also manifested itself in literature, theatre, music, and even spread to fashion, food and drink, and toys!

Some thoughts on Futurism from “Art History: The Key Concepts” by Jonathan Harris (2006):

“Futurism breathlessly aestheticised and idealised urban, industrial, and military modernity, linking them to a faith in the renewal of patriotic national identity through corporate political leadership and an aggressive rejection of the premodern past.”

“The dissolution of traditional perspectival design and naturalistic conventions (e.g. Balla’s “Dog on a leash” 1912) was the result of a common attempt to represent seen and felt experiences of motion and time.”

“Futurism was an ‘interesting anomaly: a short-lived right-wing avant-garde whose makers generally outlived the nationalist polemic.”

Websites used for this post:
http://www.fluxeuropa.com/futurism.htm
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/
http://hatfuturismo.blogspot.com/