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Futurism

Nov. 9, 2005AK 2100

Tribute to the Italian Guido Guidi who,in an Italian Aircraft, Beat theWorld Height Record (7,950M)

Futurism20 February 1909: Futurist Manifestoby Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Futurism: influential Italian movement thatincluded poetry, literature, painting,graphics, typography, sculpture, productdesign, architecture, photography, cinemaand the performing arts.

Main focus was on the dynamic, energeticand violent character of changing 20thcentury life, especially city life.

Emphasized power, speed, motion and war

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The Manifestos

Manifesto of Futurism

1.We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.

2.Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.

3.Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. Weintend to exalt aggressive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, themortal leap, the punch and the slap.

4.We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty:the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, likeserpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot ismore beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

The ManifestosManifesto of Futurism

5.We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spiritacross the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.

6.The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell theenthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.

7.Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressivecharacter can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attackon unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man.

8.We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back,when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible?Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because wehave created eternal, omnipresent speed.

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The Manifestos

Manifesto of Futurist Musicians by Balilla Pratella

I appeal to the young. Only they should listen, and only they canunderstand what I have to say. Some people are born old, slobberingspectres of the past, cryptograms swollen with poison. To them nowords or ideas, but a single injunction: the end.

I appeal to the young, to those who are thirsty for the new, the actual,the lively. They follow me, faithful and fearless, along the roads of thefuture, gloriously preceded by my, by our, intrepid brothers, the Futuristpoets and painters, beautiful with violence, daring with rebellion, andluminous with the animation of genius.

The Manifestos

Founding and Manifesto of Futurism MarinettiFirst Futurist Political Manifesto MarinettiManifesto of the Futurist Painters Boccioni, Carrà, Russolo, Severini, Balla Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting Boccioni, Carrà, Russolo, Severini,Balla Manifesto of Futurist Musicians PratellaTechnical Manifesto of Futurist Music PratellaSecond Political Manifesto of Futurism Marinetti Manifesto to Italian Tripoli MarinettiManifesto of Futurist Dramatists MarinettiTechnical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture Boccioni Manifesto of the Futurist Woman Valentine de Saint-PointTechnical Manifesto of Futurist Literature Marinetti Futurist Manifesto of Lust Futurist Manifesto of Men's Clothing Balla

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Dynamism of Dog on a Leash

Giacomo Balla, 1912Oil on Canvas (899 x 1099), Albright-Knox Art Gallery,Buffalo, NY

FuturistPaintingPrime concern was theexpression of their ideason culture andcontemporary events.

Related tocontemporary Cubistmovement

Pictorial experiments incapturing the path ofmovement

Dynamic SelfPortraitLuigi Russolo, 1913Ink on card (210 x210) PrivateCollection, Rome

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Amorous Numbers

Giacomo Balla, 1924-25Oil on canvas (762 x533), Private Collection

Initial driving forcebehind Futurism waspolitical

Anarchism, radicalMarxism, Fascism

Futurist Flower

Giacomo Balla, 1925Painted wood (290 x 580 x 390), Private Collection

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Finished Portrait of Ivan Klyun(The Builder)Kasimir Malevich, 1913Oil on canvas (1120 x 700)State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

Giacomo Balla Street Lamp (1909)

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

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Giacomo BallaAbstract Speed (1911).

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Form ofContinuity in Space (1914)

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

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Boccioni's The Street Enters TheHouse (1911).

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

Severini's The Boulevard (1910)

The Futurist artistscaptured the modernmachine age and city lifewith a range ofapproaches andtechniques that, for thetime, were revolutionary.

Five Major areas ofexperimentation

Abstract light and colour

Movement and speed

The plastic dynamism ofform

The interpenetration ofsubjects

The prismatic orshattering effect

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New YorkPercy Wyndham Lewis, 1914ink, pastel, watercolour andgouache on paper (317 x 260) Private Collection

FactoryNatalia Goncharova, 1912oil on canvas (1025 x 800). State Russian Museum, Leningrad

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Marinetti, Russolo andPiattiwith Noise Intoners,c1914

The first publicperformance ofthe Intonorumori,1914

Russolo and hisassistant Piatti withNoise Intoners, 1914

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Aviator

Russolo

The Sounds of Futurism

Balla

Corale, Serenata

Macchina Tipografica

Ballet Mechanique

George Antheil, 1924

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Antonio Sant'Elia

His extremely influential designsfeatured vast monolithic skyscraperbuildings with terraces, bridges andaerial walkways that embodied thesheer excitement of modernarchitecture and technology.

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Zang Tumb TumbFT Marinetti, 1914Cover by the author

Marinetti's book, Zang Tumb Tumb typifiesthe style and feeling of words-in-freedom andis a milestone in typographic design. Thebook is an account of the Turkish Battle ofAdrianopolis of 1912 in which Marinettivolunteered. Words-in-freedom are usedonomatopoeically to graphically illustrate theexplosions of weapons and grenades and thenoise of battle.