Futurism - zygar.co.nz

Art History
Tutors: Emelie Sitzia and Morgan Thomas
Lecture 8 - Futurism
Futurism is an Italian art movement which started with a concept rather than a style.
Their initial work was reminiscent of the post-Impressionists, as they struggled to
find a visual vocabulary which portrayed their ideas. The Futurists admired speed,
technology, and violence.
Futurism spread quickly throughout Europe, but was relatively short-lived, dying off
during World War 1. (Marinetti attempted to found a “second wave” of Futurism
after WW1 had ended.) It was also one of the only art movements that chose its
own name!
The first Futurist manifesto was written in Autumn 1908 by Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti – a poet. He is credited for founding the movement.
The manifesto began to get noticed when it was published in a French – Le Figaro –
in 1909. This publication of the manifesto is generally cited as the birthdate of
Futurism.
Futurism was a “violent” movement, in that they wanted to destroy tradition – even
though they had no idea what to replace it with.
“We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism,
feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.”
Balla and Severini, two prominent Futurist artists, joined the movement shortly after.
Marinetti deliberated upon several names before settling on Futurism – he
considered Dynamism as an alternative.
Fairly early on, Marinetti saw that there was a need to try and “direct” the painters
who took up the movement. He wrote another manifesto (the “Manifesto of the
Futurist Painters”) specifically targeted towards the young painters of Italy, with the
assistance of three artists. Boccioni, Russolo and Carrà.
In 1910, Boccioni wrote a technical manifesto. The “Technical Manifesto of Futurist
Painting” elaborated on the concepts that should be visually portrayed in futurist
paintings – it committed them to the dynamic style that they are known for.
It’s important to remember that Futurism was a concept before it had a distinctive
visual style, and the manifestos were their way of trying to find an artistic style to
represent this concept. It took them quite a while to find an “efficient” visual
vocabulary.
After the Futurists’ 1911 debut in Milan, where they
displayed Futurist works alongside some
experimental photography (see right) they broke
onto the scene in a big way after an exhibition in
Paris.
Pictured right, Bragaglia - Photodynamism : The Bow 1911
As an aside, their work received a lot of criticism,
especially by a man called Soffici, who was writing
for one of the main Italian newspapers at the time –
La Voce.
He wrote a negative review of the 1911 Futurist
exhibition, saying that there was “nothing really
new” there, that they were relatively uninteresting
works. Marinetti, Boccioni and Carra were so enraged by this review that they
descended on Florence and gave Soffici a good hiding.
They later reconciled and became friends – Soffici even painting in the Futurist style
himself, and writing in defense of futurism.
This shows an amusing contrast between the 19th century, where artists didn’t dare
even defend their work, to the 20th century, where they let their fists do the talking.
In February of 1912, the Futurists opened a show in Paris – at the gallery of
Bernheim Jeune. After this, Futurist artworks began circulating through all of
Europe.
A banker (sorry, Emilie didn’t say who) took great interest in Futurism and not only
bought many works for his private collection, but assisted them in having shows all
over Europe. Amsterdam, Dresden, the Hague etc.
The Futurists aimed to not only exhibit, but also to have lectures at the same time
– to explain the movement, “convert” young artists. Boccioni gave lectures for a
time, and he had this to say:
“We want to represent not the optical or analytical impression, but the physical and total
experience.”
As time went on, and WW1 drew closer, Futurism became more closely tied to
Fascism and it became less about the art. Marinetti aided in the rise of Fascism in
Italy – probably in part due to the aggression of the Futurist movement, and cause
he was kind of a dick. Why were the Futurists important? Because for the most part,
they didn’t look back to tradition. They brought speed and the modern world into
their paintings.
Balla - The Worker’s Day / They eat, work and go home / Bricklayers – 1904 - 1907
The early work did not have much of a distinctive style, bearing more in common
with Post-Impressionism.
Balla - Street Light - 1909
Street Light is, in some ways similar to van Gogh’s work – Balla is using the same
principle of the light “echoing” through use of expressive lines. He’s also splashing
different colours side by side to create a “vibrating” effect.
Boccioni - The City Rises - 1910
The painting has been constructed around figures of horses, aiming to create
movement. Boccioni is expanding the movement of these horses with symbolic
figures and shapes, like that weird blue stuff.
This painting could be viewed as a Futurist take on a classical scene (horses
breaking free.) As the Futurists are still finding their feet, it’s a somewhat messy
painting and not as successful as their later work.
Boccioni - The Street Enters the House - 1911
To create a “total experience,” the Futurists began to look at other contemporary
art, breaking the pictorial space and taking elements of Cubism, seen in the above
picture.
All the lines of the city are curved, which essentially directs the composition towards
the character.
Boccioni States of Mind - The Farewells - 1911
Was displayed alongside:
Bragaglia - Fotodynamic Portrait - 1911
Boccioni - Unique Form of Continuity in Space - 1913
Boccioni had a lot of success with his sculptures, largely because he was able to
effectively capture motion. Boccioni later met with Archipenko, Duchamp, etc; and
wrote a manifesto of Futurist sculpture… then he backdated it so that nobody
would think he got the ideas from anybody else!
Gino Severini
Severini was born in Italy, and spent his formative years in Paris. He knew many of
the Parisian artists at the time such as Picasso, etc.
Severini is largely responsible for bringing cubist elements into Futurism – he
organized a trip to Paris with his Futurist colleagues to see what contemporary art
was doing. They came back and began working feverishly, trying to incorporate
elements of cubism in their work, and expanding it to be something more. They
wanted to capture time and speed, the expansion and movement of objects.
Balla is often pointed at as a forerunner of Op Art (1960s movement.)
Severini - La Danse - 1910
Already, his work is very different to Cubism. It uses a different palette (no more
“muddy brown” here!) and different aims - it’s far more decorative. He uses lots of
“spots” of colours rather than large areas of colours.
Severini - Dancer at the Bal Tabarin - 1912
He’s not only combining different angles, but different movements. He’s capturing
both different sides of her leg, and different positions of her leg. Basically, the
Futurists are trying to capture objects in both space and time.
Severini - Blue Dancer - 1912
Contemporary subject matter. Society in Italy at the time was not doing well – this
painting reflects how they’re trying to present an ideal world.
Severini - Self Portrait - 1912
Cubist elements, and Fauvist elements are both apparent.
Severini - Sphreical expansion of light (centrifugal) - 1914
Compare this to Balla’s experiment with the streetlight, (pictured back in the start)
as they’re both the same type of subject. You can see the progression in futurist
style - the closer time gets to the war, the more abstract things get.
Giacomo Balla
Balla - Young Girl Running on a Balcony - 1912
Balla, in this painting, is showing some neo-impressionist influences, but he is also
adopting the futurist goals of trying to capture movement and speed. Photography
was a heavy influence – see the way the girl is duplicated many times over, as if it
were a long exposure or many exposures combined.
Balla - Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash - 1912
Balla is capturing the movement very well, when you look at the dogs legs and tail
you get an immediate impression of a silly little dog running as fast as it can.
He also used spots of colour in the solid areas, like on the dogs body, in order to
add a kind of “vibration.”
Balla - Racing Car- 1913
Racing Car is an example of how the futurists are starting to find their “visual
vocabulary” now – a recognizable style of Futurism.
Without the title it would be very difficult to understand its meaning, but because of
the title, the painting represents very clearly to the viewer the movement and speed
of a car.
If this painting is compared to some of the earlier slides, there’s a big difference.
The past few years were very important for the futurists, developmentally. Futurism
is still getting more and more abstract, however. (After all, Futurism is trying to
capture the dynamism of the world, rather than a particular subject.)
Futurist paintings tend to have no centre, nowhere for the eyes to rest. The lines are
constantly leading the eyes somewhere.
Balla - Abstract Speed, the car has Passed - 1913
The colours, and general use of line give a sense of rest, after the passing of the car.
Balla - Line of Speed, Forms, Noise - c. 1913
Moving towards abstraction here more than futurism. He’s left the car out this time.
Balla saw himself as a painter of movement, not a painter of the world, which could
explain the loss of the subject.
Abstraction in Futurism
Balla - Boccioni’s Fist c 1915
Boccioni - Dynamism of a Cyclist
Boccioni - The Charge of the Lancers - 1915
There are some traditional (synthetic) cubist elements such as the newspaper in the
background. Additionally, you can see the shapes of the soldiers fighting. This
pattern has been expanded and repeated throughout the painting, turned into an
army. The soldiers, helmets, guns – all repeated.
But, if you take away the soldiers in the foreground, it becomes a totally abstract
painting. It no longer appears violent, it’s just a pattern.
Antonio Sant’elia
Sant’elia wrote a futurist manifesto of architecture. Many of his architectural
drawings almost extend into the realms of science fiction – as if he’s proposing a
new type of city.
Some of his designs were, at the time, rather impractical, but he presented a new
design for a metropolis that doesn’t look back at historical styles. One that looks to
the future, not to the past, for inspiration of architectural styles.
Sant’elia - Architectural Drawing, Electric Power Station - 1914
Sant’elia completely rejected Art Nouveau.
Here, he is trying to work with perpendicular, horizontal, vertical, lines.
Architectural drawing - The New City: Stepped Profile. Building on Two Street Levels - 1914
While his ideas were never constructed in his time, later architects looked to his
work as a model. 1970s architecture is very reminiscent of work like this.