1. Futurism
otiva
simo
Loco
Fut

2. 3 main figures:
Filippo Marinetti - poet,
publisher (front pic)
Giacommo Balla - painter
Umberto Boccioni painter/sculptor

3. Futurism began in 1909 - pursued many of ideas that Cubists
explored.
Began as a literary movement but soon encompassed all the
visual arts, cinema, theatre, music, and architecture.
Agenda not only artistic had a well-defined socio-political
agenda.
Given name by Italian poet, magazine editor and playright
Filipo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. Published his Foundation
and Manifesto of Futurism’ in a Paris Newspaper.
Anti everything old, dull, ‘feminine’ and safe. Exhilarating
masculine experience of warfare and reckless speed.
Promoted a new taste for speed, energy and power of modern
technology and modern urban life.

4. Context: just before the outbreak of WWI. Italy is going
through its own cultural crisis.
It is an old country with a long, rich cultural history caught
between its glorious past and its modern present.
The Futurists launch us forward at a dizzying speed into the
modern world.
They want to leave the past behind so badly that they are not
even content with catching up to the present; they want to
push forward to the future.
They thus embrace all things modern, celebrating the big
city and the machine.

5. They boldly reject the past, urging their followers to burn
down the academies and the museums – saw them as
mausoleums.
They forbid anyone to paint the nude (which they
consider a dated subject) for ten years!
In order to drag Italy into the modern world and do away
with the old, they enthusiastically look forward to war.
Trouble is, most of them did not live long enough to have
much of a future.
Futurism itself proved to be a short-lived movement
since many of its members, including Boccioni, were
killed early on in the war.

6. Loved speed and dynamism of modern technology. Marinetti
insisted that ‘a speeding automobile… is more beautiful than
the Nike of Samothrace.’ (seen as then representative of
Classicism and the glorious past.

7. Like Die Brucke and other avant-garde artists, the Futurists aimed
at ushering in a new, more enlightened era.
‘We wish to glorify war – sole hygiene
of the world!’
Marinetti .
• Championed war – saw it as a cleansing.
• Would wash away the stagnant past.
• Saw it as assuring a glorious future.

8. Focused on motion
in time and space,
incorporating the
Cubist discoveries
for analysing form.
Simulataneity of
view – interest in
motion and Cubist
dissection of form.
Dynamism of a Dog on a leash Giacomo Balla 1912.

9. Focus on dog and
owner, whose
skirts placed just
within visual
range.
Achieved motion
by repeating
shapes, as in the
dog’s legs and tail
and swinging of
the leash.
Simultaneity of
views central to
Futurism.
Dynamism of a Dog on a leash Giacomo Balla 1912.

10. April 1911 five Milanese poets issued the ‘Technical Manifesto’ of
Futurist painting’
All declared
’All subjects previously used must be
swept aside in order to express our
whirling life of steel, of pride, of fever, and
of speed.’

11. Celebrate the
pulsating
dynamism of the
modern industrial
city.
Immerses the
viewer in the
crowded,
exciting chaos
of a train station,
numbers
emblazoned
across is a
powerful steam
locomotive.
Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind: The Farewells 1911.

12. Bright curves
pulsate to suggest
radio waves
emanating from a
steel tower.
Rhythms of the
crowds or couple
that move across
the picture.
Cubism but their
sequential
arrangement
inspired by timelapse photography.
Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind: The Farewells 1911.

13. Wanted to
evoke the
sounds, smells
and emotions
of the train
station – the
epitome of the
noisy urban
existence they
loved.
States of Mind: Those Who Go 1911.

14. States of Mind: Those who stay 1911

15. The Futurist
doctrine of
dynamism
held that
energy runs
through
matter and
man; all
objects,
people, and
masses are
potential
energy.
Boccioni Dynamism of a cyclist 1913

16. Nothing is
static
according to
the theory of
dynamism;
energy is
always in
motion.
Boccioni is less
interested in the
cyclist and his
machine more
speed itself.
Boccioni Dynamism of a cyclist 1913

17. Like Boccioni,
is interested
in the speed
rather than the
car.
Differs from
Boccioni, as
he likes to
analyze speed
by showing
successive
moments, like
frames of a
film.
Giacommo Balla Speeding car abstract speed 1913

18. Giacommo Balla Speeding car abstract speed 1913
Boccioni felt
that those
successive
stages were
too static
He argued for
simultaneity
rather than
succession.

19. Boccioni Dynamism of A Soccer Player 1912

20. Swifts, paths of movement and dynamic sequences 1913.

21. Balla Path of the Swallows 1913

22. Balla The Car has Passed 1913

24. ‘What we want is not fixed movement
in space but the sensation of motion
itself: ‘Owing to the persistence of
images on the retina, objects in
motion are multiplied and distorted,
following one another like waves in
space. Thus, a galloping horse has
not four legs, it has twenty.’
Boccioni

25. Was talking about
painting but helps
explain his
sculpture
Formal and spatial
effect of motion
rather than the
human figure.
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.’ 1913

26. Figure is so
expanded,
interrupted and
broken in plane and
contour that it
disappears, behind
the blur of its
movement.
Created in
Bronze,
traditional
material but
with blazoned
shine and
powerfully
dynamic form
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.’ 1913

27. Monumental expression – surpasses
similar efforts in painting (by
Boccioni and Futurist companions)
Most symbolic of the
dynamic quality of modern
life.

28. Plastic construction of noise and speed 1915, Balla

29. Encapsulates Futurist
program, both artistically
and politically.
Depicts a high armoured
train with rivets glistening
and a huge booming cannon
protruding.
Submerged are a row of
soldiers train guns at an
unknown target.
Bright colours. Death and
destruction has been
omitted.
Captures the dynamism and
motion of Futurism.
Armoured train by Gino Severini 1915