Futurism

Futurism
Some of the Futurist Manifestos!
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The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, by F.T. Marinetti (Paris) Le Figaro,
February 20, 1909.
The Manifesto of the Futurist Painters, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi
Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini (Milan) Poesia, February 11, 1910.
Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà,
Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini (Milan) Poesia, April 11, 1910.
Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, by Umberto Boccioni April 11, 1912.
The Manifesto of Futurist Musicians, by Balilla Pratella Musica futurista per
orchestre riduzione per pianoforte, 1912.
Futurist Manifesto of Lust, by Valentine de Saint-Point published as a leaflet
January 11, 1913.
The Art of Noises, by Luigi Russolo. Published as a booklet July 1, 1913.
Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, by Antonio Sant‘Elia (Florence) Lacerba,
August 1, 1914.
Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe, by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato
Depero March 11, 1915.
War, the World‘s Only Hygene, by F.T. Marinetti 1915.
The Futurist Cinema, by F.T. Marinetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo
Ginna, Giacomo Balla, and Remo Chiti (Milan) L‘Italia futurista, November 15,
1916.
The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,
by F.T. Marinetti
Le Figaro, February 20, 1909 (Paris)
Translation…
“We declare that the spendour of the world has been
increased by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A
racing car, its body ornamented by great pipes that
resemble snakes with explosive breath…. A screaming
automobile that seems to run on grapeshot, is more
beautiful than the Winged Victory of
Samothrace…Beauty now exists only in struggle. A
work that is not aggressive in character cannot be a
masterpiece… We want to glorify war – the world’s only
hygiene – militarism, patriotism, the destructive act of the
anarchists, the beautiful ideas for which one dies, and
contempt for women. We want to destroy museums,
libraries, and academies of all kinds, and to make war on
moralism, feminism and on every opportunistic and
utilitarian vileness.
Continued…
We shall sing the great crowds excited by work, pleasure or
rioting, the multicoloured, many voiced tides of revolution
in modern capitals. We shall sing the nocturnal,
vibrating incandescence of arsenals and shipyards,
ablaze with violent electric moons, the voracious stations
devouring their smoking serpents… the broad breasted
locomotives that paw the grounds of the rails like
enormous horses of steel harnessed with tubes, and the
smooth flight of the aeroplanes, their propellers flapping
in the wind like flags and seeming to clap approval like
an enthusiastic crowd. We launch from Italy into the
world this our manifesto of overwhelming and incendiary
violence, with which today we found Futurism, because
we want to liberate this land from the fetid cancer of
professors, archaeologists, guides and antiquarians.”
‘Technical Manifesto of Futurist
Painting’ by Boccioni
“Everything moves, everything runs, everything turns
rapidly. A figure is never stationary before us but
appears and disappears incessantly. Through the
persistence of images on the retina, things in movement
multiply and are distorted, succeeding each other like
vibrations in the space through which they pass. Thus a
galloping horse has not got four legs; it has twenty and
their motion is triangular… At times, on the cheek of a
person we are speaking to in the street, we see a horse
passing in the distance. Out bodies enter into the sofas
on which we sit, and the sofa enter into us, as also the
tram that runs between the houses enters into them, and
they hurl themselves on to it and fuse with it… We want
to re-enter life. That the science of today should deny its
past corresponds to the material needs of our time. In
the same way art, denying its past, must correspond to
the intellectual needs of our time.”
Giuseppe Pelizzada Volpedo
‘The Fourth Estate’, 1898-1901
Eadweard Muybridge
b. 1830 - d.1904
Giacomo Balla
‘A Worker’s Day’,
1904
Giacomo Balla
‘Street Light’, 1909
A cry went up in the airy solitude
of the high plains: ‘Let’s Murder
the moonlight!’ Some ran to
nearby cascades; gigantic
wheels were raised, and
turbines transformed the
rushing waters into magnetic
pulses that rushed up wires, up
high poles, up to shining,
humming globes.
So it was that the three moons
cancelled with their rays of
blinding mineral whiteness the
ancient green queen of loves.
Umberto Boccoini
‘The City Rises’, 1910
Carlo Carra
‘Leaving the Theatre’, 1910-11
Carlo Carrà
‘Funeral of the Anarchist Galli’,
1910-11
Luigi Russolo
‘Revolt’, 1911
Umberto Boccioni
States of Mind: The Farewells
1911
Umberto Boccioni
States of Mind: Those Who Go
1911
Umberto Boccioni
States of Mind: Those who stay
1911
Umberto Boccioni
‘States of Mind: The Farewells’
1911, Charcoal and chalk on paper
Umberto Boccioni
‘States of Mind: Those Who Go’
1911, Charcoal and chalk on paper
Umberto Boccioni
‘States of Mind: Those Who Stay’
1911, Charcoal and chalk on paper
The Futurists in Paris, February 1912.
(L to R. Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra,
F. T. Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni,
Gino Severini.)
George Braque
‘Clarinet and Bottle of
Rum on a Mantelpiece’,
1911
Gino Severini
‘Self Portrait’, 1912-13
Umberto Boccioni
‘Elasticity’, 1912
Giacomo Balla
‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’,
1912
Étienne-Jules Marey
b. 5 March 1830; d. 15 May 1904
Giacomo Balla
‘Rhythm of a Violinist’, 1912
Marcel Duchamp
‘Nude Descending the Staircase, No. 2’,
1912
Umberto Boccioni
‘Unique Forms of Continuity in
Space’, 1913
Anton Giulio Bragaglia
‘Typist’, Anton and Arturo Bragaglia (1911)
1912/13
Umberto Boccioni
‘Dynamism of a Cyclist’ 1913
Marcel Duchamp
‘The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors,
Even (The Large Glass)’ 1915-23
• Replica 1965-6,
lower panel
reconstructed
• Oil, lead, dust and
varnish on glass
Giacomo Balla
‘Speeding Car, Abstract Speed’
1913
Giacomo Balla
‘Swifts: Paths of Movement’, 1913
Carlo Carrá
‘Horse and Rider’ or ‘The Red
Rider’, 1913
Umberto Boccioni
‘The Charge of the Lancers’, 1915
Umberto Boccioni
‘Lancer’s Charge’, 1914-15
Architecture – Antonio Sant’Elia