When thinking of the word “futurism” we imagine a realm of science fiction and a new utopia, however the movement that was to come was not initially linked to spaceships or surreal technologies. Futurism was the dream of a new modern world, no matter the cost, a celebration of a movement that was to never stop and creating a revolution of new ideologies and perceptions. Despite their optimism about the technological advances that were propelling them with steam, air and diesel into the 20th century, the dawn of futurism is riddled with problematic ideologies that coincided with the rise of Italian fascism.
The term Futurism was first coined by an Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, in 1909 he published his Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of a Paris newspaper, Le Figaro. Marinetti would go on to co-author The Fascist Manifesto, found the Futurist Political Party which would soon merge with Benito Musselini's Fasci Italiani di Combattimento. It was then that this new idea to the world took the culture of art by storm, spreading rapidly and conquering new minds. Believing that Futurism could reach further than literature and poetry, seeking to stretch further than what they believed was outdated and the traditional notions of art, futurists focused on ways to serve a dynamic vision of the possibilities of the future.
A movement that that pushed nonconformism to its bounds, futurist art and ideologies were destined to become dogmatic. Futurism hunted to demolish the past and bring change. In the Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that ‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries.’ Marinetti was instrumental in declaring a new beauty, the beauty of speed. As such Futurist art often portrayed urban landscapes and modern technologies that included trains, cars, and airplanes in conversation with the human body, creating and using elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to conceive compositions that conveyed the concept of dynamism and the energy behind movement.
To Marinetti, the future is associated with virility and masculinity. In his Manifesto, he proclaims that "we want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman". While Marinetti's text presents a violently misogynistic futurism, he also advocated for women's sexual autonomy, marriage without legal permission, divorce, women's right to vote and participate in politics and equal pay. Scholars such as Carmen M. Gonzales suggest that Marinetti was not intending to vilify women, but the constrictive notions of femininity that held women within the traditional family.
Futurist artists produced various techniques and philosophies that highlighted how important themes were to their audience. Futurists developed certain techniques to forge and develop ways to express speed and motion, celebrating the idea of the process. Futurist artists and designers based their ideas that objects were not considered distinct or separate from other objects around them or their environment, artists focused on creating objects in motion, using lines of force that communicated the directional thrusts of the object through space. Artists infused simultaneity, mixing the elements of memories, current impressions, and future-event anticipation, they relied heavily on intuition, bringing forward the presence of emotional ambience that caused an experience of sympathy through the viewer seeing the object's inner quality that discovers what is unique about the piece.
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913
Much like the majority of futurist art, this piece focuses on movement and progress of the human figure and the depiction of space throughout art. Boccioni, a member of the Italian Manifesto group, was anti renaissance sculpture and intended to create work to reject classical traditions in art. This piece depicts a figure seemingly marching forward with strength. It is believed that this was to represent Italy and its pursuit to be a define itself as a modern nation.
Carlo Carrà, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, 1910-11
This piece is related to the killing of famous Italian Anarchist, Angelo Galli. During a protest, Galli was killed in a violent scene by the police. This is the scenario being depicted here. In the center of the painting one can see the red coffin of Galli. The frantic use of vibrant colors and abstract representative shapes makes this piece part of the futurist movement.
