Futurism (lat. futurum - future) is a trend of avant-garde art of the 1910s - early 1920s, primarily in poetry and painting in Italy and Russia. The "Manifesto of Futurism", published in 1909 by the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, emphasized the desire of poets and painters "to reflect in their paintings the acceleration of the pace of life and the industrialization of the environment as signs of a new era." Hence the name of the current.
Filippo Marinetti
Origin history:
The author of the word and the founder of the direction is the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti. The name itself implies a cult of the future and discrimination of the past along with the present. On February 20, 1909, Marinetti published the Futurist Manifesto in the Le Figaro newspaper. It was written for young Italian artists. Marinetti wrote: “The oldest among us are thirty years old, in 10 years we must complete our task until a new generation comes and throws us into the wastebasket ...” Marinetti’s manifesto proclaims the “telegraphic style”.
Futurism in literature is characterized by the rejection of traditional grammar, the poet's right to his own spelling, word creation, speed, rhythm. The painters dedicated their paintings to the train, car, planes - all the momentary achievements of a civilization intoxicated with technological progress. The motorcycle was declared a more perfect creation than the sculptures of Michelangelo. Marinetti said: "The heat emanating from a piece of wood or iron excites us more than the smile and tears of a woman", "New art can only be violence, cruelty."
Giacomo Balla "Speeding Car"
The Futurists proclaimed the pathos of destruction and explosion. Wars and revolutions were sung as the rejuvenating forces of the decrepit world. Futurism can also be viewed as a kind of fusion of Nietzscheanism and the "Manifesto of the Communist Party". The dynamics of movement should, according to their plan, replace the static of posing sculptures, paintings and portraits. The camera and the movie camera will replace the imperfection of painting and the human eye.
Gino Severini "Visual synthesis of the idea: War"
Futurism in the visual arts
The founders of Futurism in painting and, partly in sculpture, were the Italian artists Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, Gino Severini.
Gino Severini
In 1912, the first exhibition of futurist artists took place in Paris. The painting of Futurism took shape under the influence of French Fauvism in relation to the audacity of color combinations and Cubism, from which the Futurists adopted the principle of decomposing form into its constituent elements. But, unlike the previous trends of French post-impressionism, the Italian futurists sought to use the analytical method to create new forms that holistically express dynamics and expression.
Umberto Boccioni. "Under the Pergola in Naples"
The main artistic principles are speed, movement, energy, which the futurists tried to convey with fairly simple techniques. Their painting is characterized by "energetic compositions", in which the figures are fragmented into fragments and intersect at sharp angles, where flickering forms, zigzags, spirals predominate, and speed is transmitted by simply superimposing successive phases of movement - the so-called "principle of simultaneity".
Futurism in architecture:
In architecture, Antonio Sant'Elia is considered the founder of Futurism. In 1912, he set up a design office in Milan and, inspired by the high-rise architecture of American skyscrapers (which he only knew about from magazines), he began a series of famous design drawings, Città Nuova, in which he reflected his own ideas about the new technical age. Most of these drawings were presented at the first and only exhibition of the New Trends group (Nuove Tendenze). The exhibition was held in May-June 1914 in Milan. The famous "Manifesto dell'architettura futurista" was published by Sant'Elia in August 1914. The architecture described in the manifesto, presented in the architect's drawings, is full of futuristic expression. The author imagined a modern city in the form of a complex system of giant stepped multi-level buildings, terraces and tunnels, interconnected by passages, galleries and bridges, futuristic factories and power plants.
Antonio Sant'Elia. "Industrial building with a corner tower"
Antonio Sant'Elia. "Power Plant"
Antonio Sant'Elia. "Railway station in Milan"
