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.

Surrealism

Surrealism was a cultural movement that involved many aspects of life such as art, cinema and literature that developed mainly from Dada. It started with the release of the 'Surrealist Manifesto' by poet and surrealist theorist Andre Breton in 1924. As he described, "Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in an absolute reality, a surreality." Surrealists used visuals to express processes happening in the subconscious mind, often taking inspiration from their dreams. It was flourishing in Europe, mainly in Paris (however, it quickly spread around the world attracting many artists, musicians and directors) between WW I and WW II.

One of the most famous and appreciated surrealist artists was Salvador Dali, who was born in 1904, Figeures, Spain. He is most famous for his paintings, however, he was also involved in a film making, sculpture and photography. As a very creative and original artist he always attracted attention of the public and art critiques.

To bring his ideas form subconscious mind, Dali, used to induce hallocinatory states in himself. It was quite efficient method for him as he developed the style very quickly and produced many paintings that made him well-known around the world.

Perhaps, one of his most famous paintings is Persistance of Time (1931). The painting shows melting pocket clocks. 'The general interpretation of the work is that the soft watches are a rejection of the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic. This idea is supported by other images in the work, such as the wide expanding landscape, and the other limp watches, shown being devoured by insects.'

I like this painting as it is quite extraordinary and really dream-like. Also it is very detailed and nice painted what give more realism to the scene.

The Temptaion of Saint Anthony (1946) is another well-known painting of Salvador Dali. The painting represents the temptaion that Saint Anthony had to face during his stay in the Egyptian desrt.


I really like this piece. It is extremely imaginative and surreal. It is also very influencial piece even today. The band Linin Park used the idea of the elephants in one of their music videos: 'Somewhere I belong'

In later years Dali concentrated on academic paintings ispired by Reneisance artist Raphael, creating religious paintings. Salvador Dali died in January 23, 1989 and today is considered to be the greatest of surrelist artists.

Famous Surrealist paintings by other artists:

Rene Magritte - The Son of Man 1964 (left) and The Human Condition 1935 (right)




Max Ernst - The Elephant Celebes 1921


Yves Tanguy - Indefinite Divisibility 1942


(selected quotes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ and http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surrealism/)

Abstract art

"Art should be purely about the creation of beautiful effects."
Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin's thought perfectly describes what abstract art is all about. It uses form and colour to represent something different than the material world. The idea of abstract art was first seen in ancients Greece. The philosopher Plato, thought that 'the highest form of beauty lies not in the forms of the real world but in geometry'. The abstract artists reject all the rules, such as perspective, and often use geometrical, flat shapes to create representation of 'order, purity, simplicity and spirituality'.

One of the abstract art pioneers was Wassily Kandinsky, born in 1866. He was a Russian painter whose works were one of the very first modern abstract pieces. However, before he started creating abstract works he was developing different styles. Many of his early works, in my opinion, were inspired by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (left: 'Autumn in Bravia' 1908). His first abstract pieces started to appear around 1910. The painting Improvisation 7 (below, left), although it is kept in the similar style as his previous works, has become rather abstract.



During following years Kandinsky was developing his style and joined the Bauhaus movement as teacher at Bauhaus School in Weimar, founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. During that period he went completely abstract creating one of his most famous pieces - 'On white II' (above, right) painted in 1923. Personally, I am not a huge fan of abstract art, however in some way I quite like Kandinsky's works. I like the way he used simple shapes to create quite interesting compositions. Also the colours that he had chosen for his paintings work perfectly.

Important part of abstract art was a movement that developed in Netherlands, 1917 - De Stijl. It involved furniture design, architecture and painting and what's more it was all about abstract art.

Theo van Doesburg - a painter and founder of De Stijl along with Piet Mondriaan were the most important figures in the movement. Their styles were quite similar and were represented by different coloured squares and lines. However the difference between them (which appeared in later years) is the layout - Mondriaan would only paint them straight, vertical and horizontal when van Doesburg's paintings were often rotated 45 degrees.


Their work influenced the look of the whole movement and are still influential today. Fashion designers often use Mondriaan's paintings for the patterns. Also the influence can be seen in the architecture.

(selected quotes from: www.tate.org.uk/)