{"id":970,"date":"2025-09-12T11:53:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/synopsis-manchurian-candy\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:39:40","slug":"arthistoryminute-italian-futurism-ww1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/arthistoryminute-italian-futurism-ww1\/","title":{"rendered":"Voiceover Script: Art History Minute 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The years of the First World War (1914-1918) spawned what is perhaps the richest period of art history in the 20th<\/sup> century.  Why is it so important? Because the European avant-garde exploded with an unprecedented political immediacy in response to the senseless carnage of the world\u2019s first fully industrialized war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Italian Futurism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Futurism is marked by an obsession with the dynamics of movement and speed and expresses an unrelenting charge towards a world dominated by the machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti<\/strong> (1876-1944)<\/strong><\/b>,<\/em> a poet, wrote the first Futurist Manifesto <\/em><\/strong>published in La gazzetta dell\u2019Emilia<\/em> on February 5, 1909, and later in Le Figaro <\/em>in Paris on February 20th<\/sup>, 1909, as a call to a revolution in art and poetry that was nothing less than violent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

“We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy, and fearlessness.”<\/em><\/p>\u2013Filippo Tommaso Marinetti<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marinetti brought much controversy to Futurism, due to his veneration of fascism and his somewhat outrageous platitudes. He writes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will glorify war\u2013the world\u2019s only hygiene\u2013militarism, patriotism, the destructive gestures of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for women.\u201d <\/strong> (?!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Marinetti was a poet. What did Futurism look <\/em>like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe gesture which we would reproduce on canvas shall no longer be a fixed moment in universal dynamism, but the dynamic sensation itself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\u2013Umberto Boccioni<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Umberto Boccioni<\/strong> (1882-1916)<\/strong><\/b><\/em> was charged with bringing the Futurist ideals to life in visual art.  His Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto<\/strong> <\/em>was published as a leaflet in Milan on April 11th<\/sup>, 1910. In it he writes, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>[We declare] That all subjects previously used must be swept aside in order to express our whirling life of steel, of pride, of fever and of speed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This manifesto was signed by other futurists, Giacomo Balla, Gini Severini <\/em><\/strong>and Luigi Rossolo<\/em><\/strong>\u2013who, as a composer in addition to a painter, brought the Futurist movement into the field of experimental music as well with his Intonarumori<\/em><\/a> \u2013<\/em> \u201cmachines that scream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Futurist philosophy is steeped in early 20th<\/sup> century technology. In it, speed is celebrated for its power to condense space and time. Futurism burned with the excitement of transportation technologies such as the automobile and of communication innovations of the telegraph and radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This preparatory sketch shows the abstraction process for Boccioni\u2019s painting Dynamism<\/em> of a Cyclist (1913)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Let’s take a closer look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Level 1 \u2013 subject matter:<\/strong> a bicycle in motion\u2013vehicles were a favorite subject matter of Futurist artists, especially cyclists because of their proximity to the human body, the body as a machine extended from another machine (others include Natalia Goncharova\u2019s \u2018Cyclist\u2019 <\/em>also from 1913, and Mario Sirono\u2019s \u2018New Man\u2019 o<\/em>f 1918).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Level 2 \u2013 composition:<\/strong> geometry of bold directional shapes and colliding planes\u2013the result is a choreographed eye movement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Level 3 \u2013 texture:<\/strong> pen stroke, brush stroke\u2013frenetic, frantic movement of the hand, creates the tension of movement, vibration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That same year, Boccioni went on to create the sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space <\/em><\/strong>(1913)<\/strong>   <\/em>A substantial concretization of Futurism as an approach to the human form. In it, a figure strides forward with the motion of its limbs and body tracking through space sealed into the form of the figure itself. Boccioni writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us fling open the figure and let it incorporate within itself whatever may surround it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A year earlier fellow Futurist, Giacomo Balla\u2019s (1871-1958) Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) <\/strong>helps illustrate a principle in Boccioni\u2019s manifesto:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOn account of the persistency of an image upon the retina, moving objects constantly multiply themselves; their form changes like rapid vibrations, in their mad career. Thus, a running horse has not four legs, but twenty\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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On August 17, 1916, Umberto Boccioni was trampled to death when he fell off his horse during a cavalry training exercise while in service of the Italian Army during the First World War. He was 33 years old. As the godfather of Futurist art, many believe that the spirit of the movement died with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The years of the First World War (1914-1918) spawned what is perhaps the richest period of art history in the 20th century.  Why is it so important? Because the European avant-garde exploded with an unprecedented political immediacy in response to the senseless carnage of the world\u2019s first fully industrialized war. Italian Futurism Futurism is marked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"testtemplate","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-970","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/970\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mammothpearl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}