Futurism
- Following the pace of Modernity, there was one avant-garde movement after the next, each trying to surpass the previous.
- Futurism celebrated the advent of the modern era. They Futurist artists embraced modernity. It was not by chance that this movement was born in Italy - where the weight of tradition is so present. The fathers of modernity were provokers, Marinetti said all the historical cities in Italy had to be burned to the ground in order to reconstruct a new modern country.
- Futurism started with Poetry. These poems tried to evoke noice, the noise of the machine. These artists were deconstructing and destroying the traditional form of narration. Words were completely liberated from their purpose, completely onomatopoeic. Completely the opposite of literature, they were expressive and expressed the excitement that was brought to the world by the machine. These were the first performance artists, they toured all over Europe.
- These performance artists provoked audiences by insulting them to start fights. They used art as a political tool, for performance purposes.
- Boccioni painted movement; this painting depicts workers on the outskirts of Milan building new residential houses. He is trying to capture the dynamism, the energy and the passing of time. Cubists were interested in the decomposition in space, the futurists were interested in the evocation of time, retaining reality to represent movement.
- In this painting, Boccioni is trying to express movement more than anything else. He tried to represent waves of energy, completely in the realm of modernity. But without the Cubist movement, this would have been impossible.
- This sculpture shows the dynamism of a man walking in the street, he is trying to capture the passing of time on a form.
- Some artists began to experiment with the possibilities of photography and how it captures time and movement.
- Eadweard Muybridge's motion pictures inspired the Futurist paintings, as they tried to bring these technical advancements of photography into the medium of paint.
- This painting by Russolo depicts the working classes setting the city on fire.
- Balla was much more literal that Boccioni in his depiction of movement. He really tried to speak the same language as the photographers.
- Balla also made these images, where there is no representation of nature at all, just movement.
- Depero was enormously influenced by stage design. He made lots of posters and graphic designs for advertisements. But he lost the possibility of really subverting the mainstream culture but creating these advertisements.
- These avant-garde artists really believed they were treating a new universal language of art. The revolutionary aspiration of the early avant-gardes. But as soon as they are put in a museum, it is no longer avant-garde art. It has become culture, history.
- There is another intrinsic problem of Futurism. Paradoxically, because it is all about the Machine, the future, destroying the past, you have to have war to rejuvenate society. When Facism took power in Italy, the Fascists embraced Futurism as it was perceived as replacing the old. Futurism now has anarchic implications because of this. It was a contradiction that it was used as Fascism, as they were against power and the ruling classes.
- Some techniques of Futurism was even used for propaganda posters. Some of the artists, not all, but some, embraced Fascism.
- Futurism celebrated the advent of the modern era. They Futurist artists embraced modernity. It was not by chance that this movement was born in Italy - where the weight of tradition is so present. The fathers of modernity were provokers, Marinetti said all the historical cities in Italy had to be burned to the ground in order to reconstruct a new modern country.
- Futurism started with Poetry. These poems tried to evoke noice, the noise of the machine. These artists were deconstructing and destroying the traditional form of narration. Words were completely liberated from their purpose, completely onomatopoeic. Completely the opposite of literature, they were expressive and expressed the excitement that was brought to the world by the machine. These were the first performance artists, they toured all over Europe.
 |
| Umberto Boccioni, Futurist Evening, 1911 |
- These performance artists provoked audiences by insulting them to start fights. They used art as a political tool, for performance purposes.
 |
| Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910, MoMa, NYC |
- Boccioni painted movement; this painting depicts workers on the outskirts of Milan building new residential houses. He is trying to capture the dynamism, the energy and the passing of time. Cubists were interested in the decomposition in space, the futurists were interested in the evocation of time, retaining reality to represent movement.
 |
| Boccioni, The Dynamism of the Football Player, 1913, MoMa, NYC |
- In this painting, Boccioni is trying to express movement more than anything else. He tried to represent waves of energy, completely in the realm of modernity. But without the Cubist movement, this would have been impossible.
 |
| Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, MoMa, NYC |
- This sculpture shows the dynamism of a man walking in the street, he is trying to capture the passing of time on a form.
- Some artists began to experiment with the possibilities of photography and how it captures time and movement.
- Eadweard Muybridge's motion pictures inspired the Futurist paintings, as they tried to bring these technical advancements of photography into the medium of paint.
 |
| Carlo Carrà, Funerals of the Anarchist Galli, 1911, MoMa, NYC |
 |
| Luigi Russolo, The Revolt, 1911 |
- This painting by Russolo depicts the working classes setting the city on fire.
 |
| Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912 |
- Balla was much more literal that Boccioni in his depiction of movement. He really tried to speak the same language as the photographers.
- Balla also made these images, where there is no representation of nature at all, just movement.
 |
| Forunato Depero, New York, 1930 |
- Depero was enormously influenced by stage design. He made lots of posters and graphic designs for advertisements. But he lost the possibility of really subverting the mainstream culture but creating these advertisements.
- These avant-garde artists really believed they were treating a new universal language of art. The revolutionary aspiration of the early avant-gardes. But as soon as they are put in a museum, it is no longer avant-garde art. It has become culture, history.
 |
| Carlo Carrà, Interventionist Demonstration, 1914, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice |
- There is another intrinsic problem of Futurism. Paradoxically, because it is all about the Machine, the future, destroying the past, you have to have war to rejuvenate society. When Facism took power in Italy, the Fascists embraced Futurism as it was perceived as replacing the old. Futurism now has anarchic implications because of this. It was a contradiction that it was used as Fascism, as they were against power and the ruling classes.
- Some techniques of Futurism was even used for propaganda posters. Some of the artists, not all, but some, embraced Fascism.
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