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F Seeds of Modernism: The Making of the Bauhaus Concept Developments in Design History 1850 - 1930 James Volks & Susan Harrison

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Seeds of Modernism: The Making of the Bauhaus Concept Developments in Design History 1850 - 1930 | Futurism

Edited by James Volks & Susan Harrison

Contents

1 2 3 The Futurists

The Works

The Machine

A brief history on an influential movement & those who lead the way

Examples of some interesting works that define the movement

The impact and presence of machinery in the Futurist works

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The Futurists

Beauty of the Modern

Futurism, unlike other 20th-century art movements, is a movement that cannot be defined by a singular medium, style or goal. Instead, Futurism is a movement defined by a variety of mediums, styles and a diverse set of goals. It was launched by Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909 when he shared his ideas and visions for the movement in his manifesto published in a Paris newspaper Le Fiagro.

However, over one hundred years after the beginning of the movement, many still believe to this day that Marinetti alone is responsible for the creation of the movement. While it cannot be denied that he was one of, if not the most influential founding members of the movement, he was not alone in the creation of Futurism. Artists such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, and Gino Severini played crucial roles in the creation and sustained impact of the movement.

Marinetti along with many of the founding futurists wanted to forget older forms of culture and depict the beauty of modern day life as they felt oppressed

by Italy’s past. Futurists celebrated advanced technology, urban modernity, the machine, speed, violence, and change. Many of their works were inspired by impressionism and elements of cubism to create a sense of dynamism.

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we want to free this land from its smelly gangrene of professors, archaeologists, ciceroni and antiquarians. For too long has Italy been a dealer in second-hand clothes. We mean to free her from the numerous museums that cover her like so many graveyards.

Artists such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, and Gino Severini played crucial roles in the creation and sustained impact of the movement.

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Many members of the Futurist movement went on to support Fascism and welcomed the arrival of the First World War in Italy. They wished to reclaim Italian land from the Austrians and showed their support for this through parades, fighting on the streets and publically burning the Austrian flag.

According to Gentile (65): The Futurists were neither deceived nor misled by fascism; they were fascinated by its appeal for the total mobilization of culture to regenerate Italians in a religious cult of the nation and to construct a new society that would leave its mark upon the future in the style of

“Italian modernity�.

They carried a pent-up rage and aggression against anyone opposed to Italy and its success as a nation and this anger is often evident in their work. Similarly, the Futurists were strongly opposed to anyone who did not display a modern way of thought.

Geert, PhD Buelens

et al (viii) believe that the futurists had no greater enemy than the passeists, the artists, thinkers, bourgeois and women who were stuck in a romantic past and what they believed to be an outdated way of thinking. To the Futurists, these groups seemed to be incapable of exploring

the possibilities and dynamism of new forms of art, science, and politics.

According to the futurist manifesto, a picture “must be a synthesis of what one remembers and what one sees.�

This means that Marinetti believed that the artist should

not only depict the new but also draw on past experiences and memories, and utilize them to generate a futurist piece.

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Cult of the Machine

This building located in Leopardstown, Dublin is an example of modern day Futurist architecture. It displays the jagged lines and sharp edges associated with the movement.

At this time, Italy was governed by the National Fascist Party (PNF) and industry was rapidly growing. The cult of the machine was central to Futurism as well as the advancement in the field of technology such as the car industry. The Futurists believed that one day man and the machine would fuse into a force more powerful than anything that had come before. Because of this, Futurists wished to convey a sense of power, motion, and speed in their works. Many Futurists utilized line and colour to create a clear depiction of speed and movement.

This use of line and specific colour palettes became an essential and defining feature of Futurist art.

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The Works

The colours and use of line are common in many utilized to emphasize energy and power in Futurist works.

Plinio Codognato was an Italian illustrator and poster designer based in Verona and Milan. Fiat commissioned artists such as Codognato to create posters of its products to connect them with images of mythology. This was used to emphasize the cars’ quality and endurance. Codognato and others artists such as Jack Le Breton and Enrico Sacchett utilized images of mythological figures combined with illustrations of the Fiat car models to create an association between the rationality, heroism, and power of the latest technology with ancient Greco Roman symbols. This poster was created by Codognato to advertise the Fiat 520 model. It captures the beauty Codognato and many other Futurists saw in machinery, in particular, the car due to its modernity and ability to move at a speed, which was relatively new in the early 20th century. The colours and use of line are common in many utilized to emphasize energy and power in Futurist works. The black, grey and silver are used with the lighter grey lines in the background to convey the textures and tones of the metals of the machine (in this case the car) and its’ movement.

The red used on the 520 creates impact and is utilized to emphasize energy and power.

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MO ERN ITY 24

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TECHNOLOGY MACHINERY SPEED VIOLENCE CHANGE.

Giacomo Balla was born in Turin in 1871. He was a painter, sculptor, and designer. His early work often depicted landscapes and portraits and reflects contemporary French trends but also hint at his lifelong interest in rendering light and its effects.

Unlike most Futurists, Balla was a lyrical painter, unphased by machines or violence. However, Balla conveys a sense of speed and urgency in his works, similar to the works of the Futurists, that puts his paintings in line with Futurism’s fascination with the energy of modern life. In 1900 he went to Paris, and according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, this is where he discovered “the existential space of the metropolis on the light-flooded and crowded nightly boulevards”. These discoveries and newly-found inspirations influenced his futuristic pictures. From 1913 onwards, Giacomo Balla signed his works ‘Futur Balla’. At the end of his career, he moved away from Futurism and returned to a more traditional style.

From the beginning of the 20th century, when Futurism began, futurist art was interwoven with suppressed violence and aggression.

In this piece by Giacomo Balla, we witness the artist’s expression of the rage and frustration he holds towards the ¹Italian imperialist petty bourgeoisie.

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1 Italian imperialist petty bourgeoisie (according to Collins dictionary) is “the section of the middle class with the lowest social status, generally composed of shopkeepers, lower clerical staff etc�

In this piece, Balla utilizes a combination of aluminium and steel on a painted wood mount.

He uses these tactile materials that would have been commonly used to build machinery and industrial technology, to create a physical three-dimensional piece. He did so in an attempt to capture two forms that are intangible and invisible to the naked eye: noise and speed. I believe his use of jagged lines and sharp edges help to accurately depict and visualize two forms that would otherwise never have been visualised by the average individual.

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The Machine

“ A new beauty has been added to the splendor of the world — the beauty of speed” F.T Marinetti

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Mc Kever (Back to the Futurism) states in his article that often, the Futurist painting style was influenced by advertising posters and the bold colours and stylized shapes became more emphasized. Aeropittura, which is the painting of aeroplanes and the earth from above, was a common theme in the works of artists such as

by Tullio Crali, Gerardo Dottori, and Filia. These works tended to be more realistic, as these artists looked to share their aerial view with those who had never been able to see it.

Tullio Crali was born in 1910 and travelled around Italy exhibiting his paintings, in particular in Venice, Padua, and Treiste. Although he arrived late to the Futurist movement, the works he produced were admired by many. His most popular works include paintings of planes and aerial scenes. According to Bohn (108), Marinetti found his aeropaintings so impressive that he lectured about them on the radio.

It is evident in the way in which Crali talks about aircraft that he has a deep admiration and love for the machinery: “The airplane [is a] natural creature which incorporates the mystery of ‘cosmic motion.’

It draws us inexorably upward, higher and higher every day, so we may experience God’s purity more intimately and more forcefully.”

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Tullio Crali's Incuneandosi nell' abitato (Diving on a City) is a piece in which the painter's and the pilot's viewpoint are merged into one. This image evoked images of bombing, death, and destruction. In 1939, when the painting was first presented to the public, it was viewed

as a celebration of war and the courage and fighting spirit of the supporters of fascism.

These values match the beliefs and values of many of the futurists of this time. Diving on a City is an oil on canvas painting of a pilot ina cockpit nose-diving towards the streets of a built-up city. The aircraft

that the pilot is in is much darker in contrast to the light browns and greys of the city below.

This colour contrast, as well as the contrast in tones and textures of the metal, draws the attention of the viewer to the machine much more than the dull and plain buildings of the city. He has created a

piece where the viewer feels as though they are in the cockpit with the pilot, travelling at incredible speeds. encased in the latest and most modern form of technology.

At this time, his painting would have excited followers of the futurist movement and equally,

the supporters of fascism as both groups admired the idea of war and war machinery. The use of line creates a sense of falling as the plane dives towards the streets below. Above the pilot's head, there appears to be a bright light coming from outside the plane.

This light glorifies the pilot and also creates

a sense of speed as though the nose of the plane is creating immense heat in its descent. In 1939, when the painting was first presented to the public, it was viewed as a celebration of war, machinery and the courage and fighting spirit of the supporters of fascism.

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Conclusion It becomes evident when analyzing the works of such famous Futurists that although different in their approach to depiction and realisation of their works, all of them create pieces that communicate the same ideas: the beauty of speed, dynamism and modern technology. Futurism is a movement made of like– minded painters, sculptors and designers, that is defined by a fascination with motion and the future of mankind. It is a singular movement characterized by multiple values with one common goal; to move swiftly away from what they believed to be an outdated past and move rapidly toward a better and brighter future.

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Apollonio, Umbro Ed Futurist Manifestos, London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1973 Bohn, Willard. Reading Visual Poetry, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010 Esposito , Fernando Fascism, Aviation and Mythical Modernity Springer 2015 Fonti, Daniela. Gino Severini The Dance 1909-1916, Italy: Skira Editore S.p.A, 2001 Geert, Ph.D. Buelens et al, Ed The History of Futurism: The Precursors, Protagonists, and Legacies, Lexington: Lexington Books, 2012 Gentile, Emilio The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003 Lista, Giovanni. Futurism & Photography New York: Merrell Publishers Limited, 2001 Votolato, Gregory. Car London: Reaktion Books, 2015

Electronic Sources The Art Story Contributors, The Art Story,Web Tate , Web Italian Ways , 30 Jan 2015 Web Woods, Alan In Defence of Marxism 23 April 2003 Web Giacomo Balla, Web Hirshhorn Smithsonian, Web The Editors of EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica, EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica , 20 Jul 2018, Web McKever, Rosalind Back to the Futurism 19 January 2010 Web

Bibliography

Printed Matter

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Published in 2019 Edited by James Volks & Susan Harrison Institute of Art, Design + Technology Kill Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland, A96 KH79 Phone: + 353 1 239 4000 Email: info@iadt.ie http://www.iadt.ie Copyright © 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced to be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Text & cover design: Alanna Drury Printed in IADT, Dún Laoghaire

List of Plates Courtesy of the Estorick Collecetion page 7, Courtesy of Dr Harold Edgerton, Pete Desjardin Diving page 8, Own photography page 10, Image

by Plinio Codognato Courtesy of Italian Ways page 15, Piece

by Giacomo Balla Courtesy of the Tate page 19, By Tullio Crali Courtesy of The Art Stack page 24, Own photography page 26, Courtesy of Darren Rowse & the Digital Photography School page 30

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Our poetry is courage, audacity & revolt - F.T Marinetti

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