Futurism — the worst art movement that ever existed?
Poetry that sounds like artillery and paintings of guns and machinery: futurists preferred industrial cities to nature and praised the never-ending violence.
Futurism was a European historical avant-garde movement known as “the art of the future” or the house style of Italian fascism. The movement’s supporters denied the past, honored technological innovations, and focused on urban life prosperity. Futurists represented far-right nationalist approaches in many art forms meaning that artists were actively involved in politics. The style originated and was popularised in Italy but later spread throughout the rest of Europe.
The initiator of the movement was Egypt-born Italian literary and political figure Filippo Tomasso Marinetti (1846–1944). In 1909 he published the “Futurist Manifesto,” which generated the main ideas of futurism. Here are some of them:
History is useless
“To admire an old picture is to pour our sensibility into a funeral urn instead of casting it forward with violent spurts of creation and action.”
The main idea of the Futurist manifesto is the abolition of the past and anything related to history. Getting rid of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and professions as such. Futurists sought to burn down museums and libraries, which Marinetti referred to as “graveyards.” He stated that there was no point in looking back at the past because time and space are dead, but the future is about to flourish.
Machismo at its best
“We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.”
Marinetti scorned women and anything that has to do with femininity. Instead, futurists “romanticized” artillery and the concept of killing.
Art beautiful only by its vivid colours
“For art can only be violence, cruelty, injustice.”
War must be celebrated: Marinetti encouraged artists to include warfare in their artworks. This primary interest in war and nationalist worldview led Marinetti to be one of the first members of the Italian Fascist party. Yet, the art techniques of many talented futurist artists are unique, mesmerizing with colors, and reflect energy and dynamism.
Poetry
“Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.”
Perhaps the most influential futurist sound poem is Marinetti’s own “Zang Tumb Tumb” (1914). He released the poem inspired by the battle in Adrianople during the First World War based on his observations of the warfare as a reporter. The experimental writing consists of sounds from the war (or “words-in-freedom,” as Marinetti would say) such as “rat-a-tat-tat, toumtoum-toum tza tzu, bum bum bum, bombardment.” The noises portray artillery, bombs, explosions, loud military march, orchestra, and soldier attacks.
The movement supporters witnessed their beloved ideas of violence, as the early 20th-century felt like a never-ending war. One of the most remarkable technological innovations was an aerial bomb that Italian forces dropped over Libya for the first time in human history. For this reason, many futurists began portraying battlefield airplanes in their artworks.
