FUTURISM,
early 20th-century
movement in art that pointedly rejected
all traditions and attempted instead to glorify contemporary life, mainly by emphasizing its two dominant
themes, the machine and motion. The principles of futurism were originated by
the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti (1876-1944) and published by him in a manifesto in 1909. The following year the Italian artists Giacomo
Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrŕ, Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), and Gino
Severini signed the Technical Manifesto
of Futurist Painting. Futurism was characterized by the attempted
depiction of several successive actions of positions of a subject at the same
time. The result resembled somewhat a stroboscopic photograph or a
high-speed series of photographs printed on a single plate. Interesting
examples are Severini's Dynamic
Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin (1912, Museum of Modern Art, New York
City) and his Armored Train (1915,
Collection Richard S. Zeisler, New
York City). Although futurism was short-lived,
lasting only until about 1914, its influence can be seen in the works
of the painters Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, and Robert Delaunay in Paris and the
constructivists in Russia.
The futurist worship of the machine
survived as a fundamental part of Fascist doctrine.
