Futurism first appeared on February 20, 1909, when the FrenchĀ newspaper Le Figaro published a manifesto written by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Marinetti coined the word Futurism to expressĀ his desireĀ of discarding the art of the past and celebrating change, originality, and innovation in culture and society.
Marinettiās manifesto glorified newĀ automobileĀ technologyĀ with its speed, power, and movement. Glorifying violence and conflict, he called for the repudiation of traditional values and the destruction of cultural institutions such as museums and libraries. The rhetoric of the manifesto was passionately bombastic; its aggressive tone was intended to inspire public anger and stir controversy.
Image source:Ā https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/56eac4e4-9aeb-4ec0-b77a-3a615c78a56a by rverc
Image source:Ā https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/37b68c4e-fd7e-430c-8787-2dfc4d470cdf by Biblioteca Centrala Chisinau
What was the Futurist Manifesto?
With the publication of the āFuturist manifestoā on the front page of the French newspaperĀ Le Figaro in 1909, Marinetti launched Futurism. The manifesto set a fiery tone. Marinetti goes against the cultural tradition and calls for the destruction of museums, libraries, and feminism. Soon Futurism became an international movement whose participants published posters for almost every type of art: painting, architecture, sculpture, photography, music, cinema, and even clothing.
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/a9a895f3-d8d7-4dd2-9cf6-2e6b0f1662b0 by Allie_Caulfield
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/c2b23804-6896-4232-b23f-b3552d027d0c by George M. Groutas
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Which was the main features of Futurism?
The Futurists were fascinated by the problems of representation of modern experience and made efforts so that their paintings evoke all kinds of sensations even those not visible. The noise, the heat and even the smell of the metropolis are elements that Futurist art has remembered.
Image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/dba99a69-7e5c-4f43-90f2-4b93f25dba6e by dalbera
Futurism was not immediately identified with a distinctive style, unlike ImpressionismĀ andĀ Pointillism. Its adherents borrowed various aspects fromĀ Post-Impressionism, includingĀ SymbolismĀ andĀ Divisionism. In 1911 a distinctive Futurist style emerged, a product ofĀ CubistĀ influence.
(Post Impressionists )-A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889
Image source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436535
Futurists were fascinated by new visual technologies, especially chrono-photography, which showed the movement of an object through a sequence of frames, thisĀ technology affected their way of showing movement in painting, leading to abstract artĀ withĀ rhythmic, pulsating qualities.
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What characterized the Futurism’s style?
The Futurists were particularly excited by the works of the late 19th-century scientists and by the photographer Ćtienne-Jules Marey, whose chronophotographic (time-based) studies depicted the mechanics of animals and humans movement. He was a precursor of the cinema and his innovative experiments with time-lapse photography were particularly influential for Balla. In his painting Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, the artist playfully depictedĀ the dog’s (and dog walker’s) feet in continuous movements through space over time. Fascinated by the idea of ādynamic,ā the Futurists sought to express an objectās sensation, rhythm, and movement in their images, poems, and manifestos. Such characteristics were beautifully expressed in Boccioniās most iconic masterpiece, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (see above).
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