Overview

“We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.” Most art movements look back (Renaissance looked to Rome). Futurism looked forward—at 100 mph. Founded by F.T. Marinetti in 1909, it was a love letter to the Machine Age. They hated museums (“cemeteries!”), libraries, and pasta (it makes you sluggish). They loved race cars, airplanes, and war.

Core Idea

The core idea is Dynamism. The modern world is not still; it is a blur of motion. A running horse doesn’t have four legs; it has twenty. Futurism tried to paint the sensation of speed. They used the fragmentation of Cubism, but instead of analyzing a static object, they used it to show movement (lines of force).

Formal Definition

An Italian avant-garde movement that celebrated the technological triumph of humanity over nature. Key themes: speed, technology, youth, violence, and the industrial city.

Intuition

Imagine a long-exposure photo of cars on a highway at night. You see streaks of red light. That is a Futurist painting. They wanted to capture the energy, the noise, and the aggression of the city.

Examples

  • Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913): A bronze sculpture of a man walking. But he doesn’t look like a man; he looks like a wind tunnel test. His body is flayed open by the speed of his movement. (It’s on the Italian 20-cent coin).
  • Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash: A funny painting of a lady walking a dachshund. The dog has a blur of legs and tails, like a cartoon character running.
  • Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noises: He argued that orchestras were obsolete. He built “Intonarumori” (noise machines) that roared, hissed, and buzzed to mimic the sound of factories and war. This invented “Noise Music.”

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s sci-fi: It wasn’t about space travel. It was about the technology of their time (cars, trains, electricity).
  • It was just art: It was a political movement. They wanted to destroy “old Italy” and build a new, aggressive nation.
  • Aeropainting: A later phase of Futurism focused on the view from an airplane (a new perspective for humanity).
  • Vorticism: The British version of Futurism (Wyndham Lewis), which was more angular and less blurry.
  • Fascism: The dark side. Marinetti was a friend of Mussolini. Futurism’s glorification of war (“the world’s only hygiene”) and violence aligned perfectly with Fascism.

Applications

  • Cyberpunk: The fetishization of technology and speed in cyberpunk (Blade Runner) owes a debt to Futurism.
  • Car Design: The sleek, aerodynamic lines of sports cars are pure Futurist sculpture.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Misogyny: Marinetti famously wrote “We want to glorify war — the only hygiene of the world — militarism, patriotism… and scorn for woman.”
  • War: They loved war until they actually went to WWI. Boccioni and Sant’Elia (the great architect) were killed in the trenches. The reality of machine warfare was less “beautiful” than they thought.

Further Reading

  • Marinetti, F.T. “The Futurist Manifesto”. 1909.
  • Tisdall, Caroline. Futurism. 1978.
  • Rainey, Lawrence. Futurism: An Anthology. 2009.