Futurism

FutFutotivaotiva

LocoLoco

isimoisimo

3 main figures:3 main figures:

Filippo Marinetti - Filippo Marinetti - poet, publisher (front poet, publisher (front pic)pic)

Giacommo Balla - Giacommo Balla - painterpainter

Umberto Boccioni - Umberto Boccioni - painter/sculptorpainter/sculptor

Futurism began in 1909 - pursued many of ideas that Cubists explored.

Began as a literary movement but soon encompassed all the visual arts, cinema, theatre, music, and architecture.Agenda not only artistic had a well-defined socio-political agenda.

Given name by Italian poet, magazine editor and playright Filipo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. Published his Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism’ in a Paris Newspaper.

Anti everything old, dull, ‘feminine’ and safe. Exhilarating masculine experience of warfare and reckless speed.

Promoted a new taste for speed, energy and power of modern technology and modern urban life.

Context: just before the outbreak of WWI. Italy is going through its own cultural crisis.

It is an old country with a long, rich cultural history caught between its glorious past and its modern present.

The Futurists launch us forward at a dizzying speed into the modern world.

They want to leave the past behind so badly that they are not even content with catching up to the present; they want to push forward to the future.

They thus embrace all things modern, celebrating the big city and the machine.

They boldly reject the past, urging their followers to burn down the academies and the museums – saw them as mausoleums.

They forbid anyone to paint the nude (which they consider a dated subject) for ten years!

In order to drag Italy into the modern world and do away with the old, they enthusiastically look forward to war.

Trouble is, most of them did not live long enough to have much of a future.

Futurism itself proved to be a short-lived movement since many of its members, including Boccioni, were killed early on in the war.

Loved speed and dynamism of modern technology. Marinetti insisted that ‘a speeding automobile… is more beautiful than the Nike of Samothrace.’ (seen as then representative of Classicism and the glorious past.

Like Die Brucke and other avant-garde artists, the Futurists aimed at ushering in a new, more enlightened era.

‘We wish to glorify war – sole We wish to glorify war – sole hygiene of the world!’hygiene of the world!’

Marinetti .

• Championed war – saw it as a cleansing.

• Would wash away the stagnant past.

• Saw it as assuring a glorious future.

 

Focused on motion in time and space, incorporating the Cubist discoveries for analysing form.

Simulataneity of view – interest in motion and Cubist dissection of form.   Dynamism of a Dog on a leash Giacomo Balla 1912.

Focus on dog and owner, whose skirts placed just within visual range.

Achieved motion by repeating shapes, as in the dog’s legs and tail and swinging of the leash.

Simultaneity of views central to Futurism.  

Dynamism of a Dog on a leash Giacomo Balla 1912.

April 1911 five Milanese poets issued the ‘Technical Manifesto’ of Futurist painting’

 All declared

 ’’All subjects previously used must All subjects previously used must be swept aside in order to express be swept aside in order to express our whirling life of steel, of pride, our whirling life of steel, of pride, of fever, and of speed.’of fever, and of speed.’

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind: The Farewells 1911.

Celebrate the pulsating dynamism of the modern industrial city.

Immerses the viewer in the crowded, exciting chaos of a train station, numbers emblazoned across is a powerful steam locomotive.

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind: The Farewells 1911.

Bright curves pulsate to suggest radio waves emanating from a steel tower.

 Rhythms of the crowds or couple that move across the picture.

Cubism but their sequential arrangement inspired by time-lapse photography.

 

Wanted to evoke the sounds, smells and emotions of the train station – the epitome of the noisy urban existence they loved.

States of Mind: Those Who Go 1911.

States of Mind: Those who stay 1911

Boccioni Dynamism of a cyclist 1913

The Futurist doctrine of dynamism held that energy runs through matter and man; all objects, people, and masses are potential energy.

Boccioni Dynamism of a cyclist 1913

Nothing is static according to the theory of dynamism; energy is always in motion. Boccioni is less interested in the cyclist and his machine more speed itself.

Giacommo Balla Speeding car abstract speed 1913Like Boccioni, is interested in the speed rather than the car.

Differs from Boccioni, as he likes to analyze speed by showing successive moments, like frames of a film.

Giacommo Balla Speeding car abstract speed 1913

Boccioni felt that those successive stages were too static

He argued for simultaneity rather than succession.

Boccioni Dynamism of A Soccer Player 1912

Swifts, paths of movement and dynamic sequences 1913.

Balla Path of the Swallows 1913

Balla The Car has Passed 1913

‘‘What we want is not fixed What we want is not fixed movement in space but the movement in space but the sensation of motion itself: sensation of motion itself: ‘Owing to the persistence of ‘Owing to the persistence of images on the retina, objects images on the retina, objects in motion are multiplied and in motion are multiplied and distorted, following one distorted, following one another like waves in space. another like waves in space. Thus, a galloping horse has Thus, a galloping horse has not four legs, it has twenty.’not four legs, it has twenty.’

Boccioni

Was talking about painting but helps explain his sculpture

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.’ 1913

Formal and spatial effect of motion rather than the human figure.

Figure is so expanded, interrupted and broken in plane and contour that it disappears, behind the blur of its movement.

 

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.’ 1913

Created in Bronze, traditional material but with blazoned shine and powerfully dynamic form

Monumental expression – surpasses similar efforts in painting (by Boccioni and Futurist companions)

Most symbolic of the dynamic quality of modern life.

Plastic construction of noise and speed 1915, Balla

Armoured train by Gino Severini 1915

Encapsulates Futurist program, both artistically and politically.

 Depicts a high armoured train with rivets glistening and a huge booming cannon protruding.

Submerged are a row of soldiers train guns at an unknown target.

Bright colours. Death and destruction has been omitted.

Captures the dynamism and motion of Futurism.