FUTURISMO

A nascent futurism can be seen surfacing throughout the very early years of the last century, the 1907 essay Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst (Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music) by the Italian composer Busoni, is sometimes claimed as its true beginning point for the movement. Futurism was a largely Italian and Russian movement, although it also had adherents in other countries.

The Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was the first among futurists to produce a manifesto declaring a new artistic philosophy in his Manifesto of Futurism (1909), first released in Milan and later published in the French paper Le Figaro (February 20). Marinetti summed up the major principles of the futurists, including a passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. He and others also espoused a love of speed, technology and violence. The car, the plane, the industrial town were legendary artistic subjects for the futurists, because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature. Publishing manifestos was a feature of Futurism, and the Futurists (usually led or prompted by Marinetti) wrote them on many topics, including painting, architecture, religion, clothing and cooking.

The famous Italian artists who supported Futirsm were Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini.

Many Italian futurists instinctively supported the rise of fascism in Italy in the hope of modernizing the society and the economy of a country that was still torn between unfulfilled industrial revolution in the North and the rural, archaic South. Marinetti founded the Partito Politico Futurista (Futurist Political Party) in early 1918, which only a year later was absorbed into Benito Mussolini’s Fasci di combattimento, making Marinetti one of the first supporters and members of the National Fascist Party. However, some leftists that came to futurism in the earlier years continued to oppose Marinetti’s domination of the artistic and political direction of futurism.

Futurism influenced many other twentieth century art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, constructivism, surrealism and Dada. Futurism as a coherent and organized artistic movement is now regarded as extinct, having died out in the 1944 with the death of its leader, Marinetti. Nonetheless the ideals of futurism remain as significant components of modern Western culture; the emphasis on youth, speed, power and technology finding expression in much of modern commercial cinema and culture.

The Futurist Manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was published in French as "Manifeste du futurisme" in Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. It launched an art movement, futurism, that rejected the past; celebrated speed, machinery, violence, youth and industry; and sought the modernisation and cultural rejuvenation of culture in general and Italy in particular. The manifesto allowed a sharper comprehension of a cultural evolution, meant as an intellectual avant-garde. Manifest and manifestos that followed his inspired and made a decisive impact on the avant-garde movements among the young artists of her generation who sought a new civilization and culture, corresponding to the existing scientific and industrial progress.

Futurists proclaimed a radical departure from traditional art, culture and civil society are therefore were active in all areas and disciplines of art. Political excesses was their favorite mean of action aiming to shock and provoke bourgeois society, and newspapers or printed pamphlets were their favorite medium because of their easy distribution to the large public. Political excess inaugurated as artistic act abolished the idea of autonomy of art in favor of art’s active political role in destruction of the bourgeois culture and modernist art values.

Futurist manifestos made crucial impact on editors and artists associated with the magazines Zenit, Tank, Dada Tank, MA and Ut. Alongside Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 – 1944) amnog the most famous authors of the Futurist Manifestos were: Francesco Balilla Pratella (1880 – 1955) author of the Manifesto of the Futurist Musicians (1910), Luigi Russolo (1885 – 1947) author of the Art of Noise (L’arte dei Rumori, 1913) Antonio Sant ‘ Elia (1888 – 1916) author of the Manifesto of the Futuristic Architecture (Manifesto dell’Architettura Futurista, 1914). Marinetti in 1919 has visited Rijeka during the period the city was ruled by poet Gabriele D’Annunzio.