Futurism

Futurism

Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points

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Futurism

• It was the beginning of the 20th century. The world was accelerating and growing with enthusiasm, and futurism is precisely the aesthetics of speed. An avant-garde movement created in Milan in 1909 and carried forward mainly by Italian artists (but we have chosen a painting by the Russian Goncharova because it is a clear example of many of the characteristics of futurist painting).
• Artists expressed their admiration for modernity, their fascination with machines, and their intention to make an absolute break with the past. In their own manifesto, written by the poet Marinetti, they go so far as to say: “…A roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace” (referring to one of the most marvelous sculptures in the Louvre).
• To convey the idea of movement and speed, angular shapes and energetic lines are used. The effect is also achieved by representing several images of the object or figure in slightly different positions at the same time (as if several photograms of a moving scene were superimposed on the same frame, a popular resource in comics and cartoons).
• The superimposition of points of view and geometrical forms is a direct inheritance of Cubism. That is why it is sometimes said that “Futurist paintings are Cubist paintings in movement.”
• Every art usually reflects the reality of its time, and the reality represented by Futurism has two aspects: on the one hand, we see the magnificent representation of progress and the new world in movement embodied in its aesthetics. On the other hand, the ideological aspect (reflected in its manifesto) represents the ambition of a new order, the destruction of the past, and the “purification,” which would glorify the nearby war and lead to fascism.

Representative Artists: Boccioni, Balla, Severini, Carrà, Goncharova

Image: The Cyclist (1913). Goncharova

Recommended links:

Fundamental Painters of Futurism.

The “Avant-garde” Movements.

Fundamental Differences between Analytic and Synthetic Cubism.

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