Futurism

Artistic movement

Filippo Tomasso Marinetti

Italian poet coined term ‘futurism’

Manifesto of futurism

• called for rejection of past - its holding us back

  • destroy museums, libraries, academies

• Embrace locomotive future

  • speed is the new beauty

• saw war as a means of societal cleansing

• emphasis on violence, agressive action

  • art should be dynamic

“Sing the love of danger - Glorify war - Destroy Museums - There is no more beauty except in struggle”

quote from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism

Futurism (vs. science fiction)

• artistic & social movement

• immediate future & impact

• glorified speed, tech, violence

(futurism vs.) Science fiction

• genre with speculative fiction

• explores near, far futures (alternate realities)

• often explores philosofical or social questions

Dynamism of a dog on a leash

Giacomo Balla, 1912 painting

Background meant to be tuscan countryside: dusty

Giacommo Balla

He and four other futurist artists wrote The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painters

• “All things move, all things run, all things are rapidly changing. . . . moving objects constantly multiply themselves . . . a running horse has not four legs, but twenty.”

Unique forms of continuity in space

Umberto Boccioni, 1913 sculpture

• Polished metal like sleek modern tech

• Sculpture marches, made as if forged by speed

Umberto Boccioni

He was a central figure in futurist movement, “creating forms that emulated the dynamism and ingenuity of the machine age”