FUTURISM
INTERNATIONAL
MODERN
ART
MOVEMENT.
The futurist movement emerged as a new Artistic style from Italy in the early 20th century
just before the break of World War I (1909).
the brain child of this new movement was an Italian poet 'Filippo Tomasso Marinetti'. On the 20th February 1909 he published the 'Manifesto of futurism" on the front page of a Parisian newspaper 'Le Figaro'.
The concept of Futurism, coined by Marinetti, reflected the emphasis on a revolution against traditional art of the past and celebrating change, originality, and innovation in culture and society. Marinetti's manifesto glorified and praised the new technology of the auto mobile and the beauty of speed, power, and movement. He embraced War, violence and conflict and disapproved of traditional cultural, social, and political values and the destruction of such cultural institutions as museums and libraries. Marinetti's manifesto's intent was a bold statment having an aggressive tone and provocative in nature was purposely intended to inspire public anger and amazement, to arouse controversy, and to attract widespread attention.
Futurist paintings
Luigi Russolo; 'Revolt' (1913)
This new manifesto lead to a change in Art and the artist, being painters, sculpture and architecture fields at the time focused on portraying this new technological ethos. The main aspect of their art was to capture the dynamic energy of movement and speed.
In the painting above we can see an example of a famous futurist artist work, Luigi Rossolo. In his work he portrays a crowd of people revolting. This can be interpreted as a literal description of the futurist ideology i.e. the social uprising against old social and cultural norm.
The painting is set in an urban environment which will be a common scenario and theme in other futurist works which in the above painting is identified by the buildings seen in the image.
Another crucial aspect of the painting above is how the artist divided the picture using sharp and angled diagonal lines which swoop through the image from right to left which conveys a very strong expression of abrupt dynamic movement, speed and energy. These lines convey our attention towards the gang of people portrayed in an stylised fashion which the artist placed in a spear head formation which evokes the notion of a charging unstoppable force.
The colours used in the painting serve as a sybols. the raging people are portrayed in a bold red which conveys power and danger contrasted with bold yellows and greens stripes of colour which compliments the dynamic energy of the crowd. on the other hand the urban scenario of buildings is given a dull and cold colour palette making use of dark blues , greens and dark tonalities which represent the already known social culture. The use of these contrasting colours of bold vibrant colours against dull and dark colours strengthens the overall subject of the futurist ideology against the past.
These characteristics are a common practice which were present in other futurist works and were regarded rules to follow. these are some other examples
Giacomo Balla; 'abstracted speed and sound' (1913-14)
'The street enters the house' Umberto Boccioni 1911
'Nose Dive into the city' ; Tullio Crali 1939
Designers also started to revolutionise their work to adapt to the futurist ideals. An important artist which was a key role in editorial design was "Fortunato Depero". He was a talented painter, stage designer, illustrator, artist, and writer who played a key role in advancing the uses of typography.
In terms of typography, Futurist broke the symmetry and tradition of the printed page by making use of multiple colours, typefaces, and text orientations. Depero made us of such elements in his work especially the use of different coloured inks and numerous typefaces. This can be seen in 2 of his most important work which are, the book 'Depero Futurista' (1927) considered the first object-book and in advertising the 'Vouge' magazine covers ( 1929-30).
Futurist paintings
|
| Luigi Russolo; 'Revolt' (1913) |
This new manifesto lead to a change in Art and the artist, being painters, sculpture and architecture fields at the time focused on portraying this new technological ethos. The main aspect of their art was to capture the dynamic energy of movement and speed.
In the painting above we can see an example of a famous futurist artist work, Luigi Rossolo. In his work he portrays a crowd of people revolting. This can be interpreted as a literal description of the futurist ideology i.e. the social uprising against old social and cultural norm.
The painting is set in an urban environment which will be a common scenario and theme in other futurist works which in the above painting is identified by the buildings seen in the image.
Another crucial aspect of the painting above is how the artist divided the picture using sharp and angled diagonal lines which swoop through the image from right to left which conveys a very strong expression of abrupt dynamic movement, speed and energy. These lines convey our attention towards the gang of people portrayed in an stylised fashion which the artist placed in a spear head formation which evokes the notion of a charging unstoppable force.
The colours used in the painting serve as a sybols. the raging people are portrayed in a bold red which conveys power and danger contrasted with bold yellows and greens stripes of colour which compliments the dynamic energy of the crowd. on the other hand the urban scenario of buildings is given a dull and cold colour palette making use of dark blues , greens and dark tonalities which represent the already known social culture. The use of these contrasting colours of bold vibrant colours against dull and dark colours strengthens the overall subject of the futurist ideology against the past.
These characteristics are a common practice which were present in other futurist works and were regarded rules to follow. these are some other examples
|
| Giacomo Balla; 'abstracted speed and sound' (1913-14) |
|
| 'The street enters the house' Umberto Boccioni 1911 |
|
| 'Nose Dive into the city' ; Tullio Crali 1939 |
As an artist Depero was highly inspired by the founder
of the Movement F.T Marianetti and was a full supporter to the cause and also from a the artist Giacomo Balla which worked together and wrote 'The Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe" a manifesto for the revolution of everyday life.
" We Futurists, Balla and Depero, seek to realize this total fusion in order to reconstruct the universe making it more joyful, in other words by a complete re-creation.”
The book Derepo Futurista which can be seen in the image on the left is considered as his famous work. the hard bound book consisted of 80 pages of advertising designs.
A very important detail of the book's exterior is that it is bound together with the use of 2 metal nuts and bolts which represent the industrial and machined aspects that the Futurists admired. This manner of binding was first of its kind.
In the aspect of layout, Depero used no respect for the traditional rules and position his text in different directions , incorporated multi-coloured text and made use of new typefaces. The text was printed on different kinds of paper in various type sizes and widths making use of different materials which made the text suddenly become an image.
Pages from the 'Depero Futurista' book
Depero incorporated the same principles and the positioning and orientation of text seen in the book Depero Futurista found above in the designs for a Subway poster seen below
Subway poster Fortunato Depero 1929
In his magazine covers for Vogue, Depero make use of cut outs with black and white or color changes that embrace the more child like element of Futurism. These characteristics, along with the use of flat colours, made his work easily reproducible in the print media through newspapers, posters, etc. This was Depero’s aim to advertise Futurism and its ideas to the general public
1929 Vogue magazine cover
1930 Vogue magazine cover
Biblograhy
(accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 10:35pm)
( published 5th June 2012 ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 16:46pm)
( published 14th Oct 2002 ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 17:36pm)
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/movements/195215
( published 2013 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation ) (accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 16:55pm)
https://www.pinterest.com/snmajor/futurism/
(accessed 18th Nov 2013 at 17:24pm)
The book Derepo Futurista which can be seen in the image on the left is considered as his famous work. the hard bound book consisted of 80 pages of advertising designs.
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