Futurism

Futurism was an international, artistic and social movement, which started in Italy with the appear of the Futurism Manifesto published on 20 February 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who is considered to be the founder of Futurism. By the word Futurism, which refers to the future, Marinetti tried to emphasize innovation, development, social revolution but also discard all the things that had been created in the past - "We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind..."

Futurist ideology was associated with speed, dynamism, technology, noise, power, machines and violence. Artists, who were inspired by Marinetti's manifesto, very often tried to express movements, dynamism and speed in the visual arts.

The painting above is a good example of what Futurists tried to achieve. It was painted in 1912 by Gicomo Balla and is called Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash. The artist tried to capture the movement of a dog by layering multiple images. In my opinion it gives you the feeling of a motion. Today's digital artists do quite similar thing by applying motion blur to some parts of an image. In the example below, by Andree Wallin, you can see how the artist blurred the background to show the speed of the spaceship.

Other artists, influenced by Cubist style of painting, attempted to simulate dynamism by fragmented surface of the paintings. One of the most famous artists that used that kind of technique was Umberto Baccioni. He was an Italian painter and sculptor. My favourite painting of his, is probably Elasticity painted in 1912 (below).

The painting shows a man riding a horse. What I like about this painting is how the artist visualised the horse - to me it looks very dynamic and almost machine-like. I also like the colours that he used, in my personal opinion, they look quite aggressive and vivid.

As a sculptor, Baccioni created many fantastic sculptures, which reflected the Futurist idea. In his scuptures, the same as in his painting, Baccioni tried to create the feeling of a motion. You can also notice the relationship between his scultures and paintings, which show quite similar Cubist style.

Architects were also involved in the Futurism. The most fomous among them was Antonio Sant'Elia, which was in extremaly influential. As many Futurists, Sant'Elia was a nationalist and joined the army. Unfortunately, he was killed in WWI, 1915. However, he left many of his futurist drawings, which inspired many architects in later years. I really like his work, even today it looks quite modern and futuristic. The buildings remind of some kind of factories, which I think represent the development, machines and speed - everything that Futurism was all about.

Contemporary artists from Atkinson+Co visualised Sant'Elia's ideas by creating 3D scenes based on his sketches and projects.

I think Futurism was very interesting movement full of amazing art and artists that I really appreciate. However, I do not agree with the Futurist view on politics.