Creative Futurism Facts: An Artistic And Cultural Movement

Futurism gained prominence in the early years of the 20th century and introduced an avant-garde art form that mingled with science and technology.

The prime motto of this movement was to portray the dynamic temperament of the world, specifically Europe, a few years before the First World War. With the many technological advancements of the century spread around in Britain, Germany, France, and the US, Italy was seen to be lagging behind, accommodating its Renaissance art world.

In the first decade of the 1900s, a group of rebellious young artists from Italy took to their responsibility to catch up with the dynamic vision of modern life that the world was celebrating.

An Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti first initiated the idea with his publication of the 'Futurist Manifesto' on the first page of a French newspaper, 'Le Figaro', in 1909.

In the publication, this Italian writer spoke boldly against the age-old cultural traditions of Italy and even expressed hatred towards its libraries, museums, traditional art critics, and feminism. With the rapid spread of the 'Futurist Manifesto', artists internationally started favoring merging human beings with machines and expressed the 'machine age' in visual arts.

Keep reading to know some mind-blowing Futurism facts, the key artists associated with this movement, and why it had to come to an end.

Italian Futurism

Italian Futurism (1908-1944) was a robust art movement that inspired artists to pursue a more mechanized vision. Futurist artists were centered around speed, energy, and restlessness of machines and the modern world. The movement found expression with novel paintings and poetry that were mainly at the forefront of Futurism.

Futurist artists were inspired by Cubism and utilized this style to express the rapidity of movement or dynamism. They would use repetitive, blurred, and overruled lines to portray the force and urgency of the modern world.

Notable Futurist painters like Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, and Giacomo Balla signed their very first manifesto in 1910. The zeal of the movement was so strong in them that Giacomo Balla even named his daughter after a mechanical device, a propeller.

Futurists mass-produced their manifestos like never before. They surpassed the Realist and Symbolist predecessors in their expression of aesthetic, social, and political ideals. As a result, this movement reached a greater audience, and Futurism grew momentum.

Futurists also looked up to Étienne-Jules Marey, a scientist and photographer of the 19th century, who was known for his groundbreaking chronophotographic studies analyzing the mechanical movements of animals and human beings.

Timeless paintings like 'The City Rises' by Umberto Boccioni, 'Funeral Of The Anarchist Galli' by Carlo Carrà, 'Dynamism Of A Dog On A Leash' by Giacomo Balla each remain as an artifact for the Futurist art movement.

Futurism reverberated with sentiments of Italian Fascism by its very ideals. As the movement grew, Marinetti joined hands with Benito Mussolini, and Futurism turned into a political art form. Futurism became extinct in Italy in 1944.

Russian Futurism

The rapid spread of Italian Futurism reached Russia in 1910. Though majorly inspired by its Italian counterpart, Russian Futurism differed significantly in its ideals. Futurist ideas were initiated by a group of poets called Hylaea. This group was headed by David Burliuk and his brothers, who went on accumulating the best artistic minds in Russia.

Russian Futurism was led by notable Russian writers Vladimir Mayakovsky, Aleksei Kruchyonykh, and Velimir Khlebnikov, and visual artists like David Burliuk and Natalia Goncharova.

The target of Russian Futurists was to break away from the conventional art styles to adopt modern linguistics and visual perspective to match the sentiments of the age. The manifesto 'A Slap In The Face Of Public Taste', written by Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1912, created a lot of buzz regarding the Futurists' bold rejection of the traditional method.

The 'newness' of Russian Futurism was not only limited to a shift to new art forms. Russia was also discarding its agrarian ways to evolve into an industrialized nation.

Though Russian Futurism was against the traditional form, artists preserved the use of primitive art forms like religious icons, pagan sculpture, woodcuts, and folk art. Artists experimented with a curious amalgamation of the past elements and present vision, creating what is known today as Cubo Futurism.

Unlike Italy, Russian Futurism promoted women. Artists like Lyubov Popova, Natalia Goncharova, Olga Rozanova were key participants of the movement and even traveled outside the country to Berlin and Paris, where women were given more liberty.

Characteristics Of Futurist Art

Since the Futurist movement arose from the urgency of being modern, certain characteristics are common to all Futurist art. These are:

Visual depiction of restlessness and speed: 'Dynamism Of A Dog On A Leash' by Giacomo Balla and 'Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space' by Umberto Boccioni are prime examples of how urgency was portrayed in paintings and sculptures, respectively.

Simultaneity of movement: Futurist art displays the movement of multiple objects happening at the same time. 'Dynamic Hieroglyphic Of The Bal Tabarin' by Gino Severini is a prime example of this feature.

Technical subject matter: Machines were the focal point of art. Artists glorified airplanes, locomotives, tanks, automobiles, and other machinery.

Divisionism: As is typical to Cubism and Pointillism, Futurist art relied on dividing and dissecting the subject matter and painting it with stripes and dots.

Political undertone: Politics contributed greatly to Futurist art. Italian Futurists were proclaimed anarchists and supporters of Fascism. After Marinetti's alignment with Mussolini, the genre became politically absolute and faced much criticism.

The Legacy Of Futurism

Futurism began on Italian soil but had reached many corners of the world in a matter of a few years. German Expressionists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Franz Marc adopted the idea of dynamism and mobility and presented them in works like 'Animal Fate'. Futurism reached England and influenced eminent philosophers like Ezra Pound and T.E.

Hulme, and artists like David Bomberg, Jacob Epstein, and Wyndham Lewis. It also anticipated the development of Vorticist movement. In Asia, Japanese culture adopted the genre to produce some significant films.

FAQs

What is Futurism art?

The idea of Futurism art focuses on embracing the ways of the modern world. It is an anticipation of the future and was expressed by artists with didactic art pieces portraying the human-machine relationship.

What is dynamism and with what group is it associated?

Dynamism refers to the upbeat lifestyle of the early 20th-century world. At the beginning of the century, there was a huge expanse in the scientific and technological spheres which began transforming the face of the world. Futurists recognized themselves with this fast-paced, mechanical movement and expressed this in their manifestos.

What aspect of dynamism did Boccioni express in his paintings and sculptures?

Umberto Boccioni expressed dynamism by portraying the inter-relationship between form, space, and motion. His theme of continuity brought together form, motion, and space into a continual structure.

Why was Futurism created?

Futurism was created in Italy to match its modernity with nations like Britain, France, Russia, and others. Italian Futurists felt that their cultural stance was exhausted by the traditional themes such as Renaissance and Baroque, so the nation needed to issue a change to match contemporary times.

Who are some of the artists that were involved with the Futurism art movement?

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, and Giacomo Balla were prominent participants of Italian Futurism, while Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burliuk, and Natalia Goncharova, were involved in Russian Futurism.

Where did Futurism originate?

Futurism originated in Milan, Italy.