Italian Futurism (il Futurismo italiano, the specific Italian avant-garde art and cultural movement founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (born Alexandria, Egypt 1876. Died Bellagio, Como 1944) with the specific "Manifesto del Futurismo" published on the front page of the Paris Le Figaro on February 20, 1909) is the most politically complex and the most intellectually uncomfortable single Italian art movement, the movement that simultaneously produced the most innovative single Italian painting of the early 20th century (the Umberto Boccioni "Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio" (1913), the specific bronze sculpture that appears on the Italian 20-cent euro coin), proposed the abolition of pasta from the Italian national diet (the specific "La Cucina Futurista" cookbook (1932) that proposed the replacement of pasta with "aerofood" (the futurist food concept of eating while being caressed by different textures and subjected to different scents and sounds)), and provided the specific aesthetic vocabulary for Italian Fascism (the specific March on Rome poster (1922) and the specific Mussolini political theater used the Futurist visual language directly).
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Italian Futurism: The Movement, the Art, and Where to See It
The 1909 Manifesto and the Core Ideas
The specific Futurist manifesto content (the 11 points of the Manifesto del Futurismo as published in Le Figaro, February 20, 1909, the most specifically provocative single Italian cultural document of the 20th century): the specific Point 9 ("We want to glorify war, the only hygiene of the world, militarism, patriotism, the destructive act of the anarchist, the beautiful ideas for which one dies, and contempt for women"). The specific Point 11 ("We want to destroy museums, libraries, and academies of every kind and fight against moralism, feminism, and every kind of utilitarian and opportunistic cowardice"). And the specific automotive manifesto (Point 4: "We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its hood adorned with great exhaust pipes like serpents with explosive breath... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace"): the most specifically anti-classical single artistic manifesto in European cultural history. The specific historical context: the Marinetti manifesto was published at the specific moment of the maximum Italian cultural inferiority complex relative to France (the specific Belle Époque Paris (1900-1914) had the most concentrated single European art market (the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists, and the nascent Cubism of Picasso and Braque were all in Paris)), the Futurist manifesto was the most specifically aggressive single Italian cultural counter-claim against the specific French cultural hegemony.
The Key Artists and Their Masterworks
Umberto Boccioni (born Reggio Calabria 1882, died Sorte di Verona 1916, died falling from a horse during military training at 33 years old, the most specifically premature single death in Italian art history given the specific quality trajectory his work demonstrated): the specific masterwork "Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio" (1913, the specific bronze sculpture that freezes the specific walking figure in the most specifically dynamic single sculptural moment: the specific bronze surface (the "flowing forms" (the forme fluenti) that the Futurist dynamic vision produces as the most specifically modern single sculptural quality by eliminating the static classical contour and replacing it with the specific movement-implied surface tension)) is the single most recognised Futurist artwork globally. Current location: the MoMA New York, the Tate Modern London, the Musée d'Art Moderne Paris, and the MART Rovereto (the most specifically concentrated single Futurist museum collection in Italy). Giacomo Balla (born Turin 1871, died Rome 1958): the specific "Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio" (1912, the "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash" whose specific multiple-exposure image of the dachshund's legs and the owner's shoes represents the most accessible single Futurist painting concept): the most specifically humorous single Italian avant-garde artwork. Current location: the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY.
Where to See Italian Futurism in Italy
The MART (Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. Corso Bettini 43, Rovereto (TN). GPS: 45.8871°N, 11.0405°E): the most important single Futurism collection in Italy (the Collezione Futurismo del MART, the specific donation of the Marinetti collection (the Marinetti family estate donated to the MART in 1999, the most specifically documented single Futurist archive including the Marinetti personal correspondence with Mussolini, the Futurist manifesto original manuscripts, and the specific collection of 300+ Futurist artworks)). Admission: €11. Open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00. Transport from Verona: the Trenitalia Regionale (45 minutes, approximately €4.50). The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (the GNAM, the Viale delle Belle Arti 131, Rome. GPS: 41.9139°N, 12.4804°E, adjacent to the Borghese Gallery): the most comprehensive single Rome Futurism collection (the specific Boccioni, Balla, Severini, and Carra works in the permanent collection alongside the specific Italian Divisionism (the Segantini, the Pellizza da Volpedo) that immediately precedes the Futurist period in the most specific art-historical sequence available in any single Italian gallery). Admission: €15. Open Tuesday-Sunday 9:00-19:00.
Q&A: Italian Futurism Art
Why is Italian Futurism politically uncomfortable?
The specific Futurism-Fascism connection: Marinetti was a founding member of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (the Milan founding meeting of March 23, 1919. Marinetti was present alongside Mussolini) and the Futurist aesthetic (the machine worship, the action glorification, the anti-democratic elitism, and the specific national renewal mythology) provided the most specifically compatible single Italian intellectual tradition for the Fascist movement. The specific uncomfortable historical fact: the Futurist visual language (the bold typography, the dynamic diagonal composition, and the specific "simultaneity" concept) appears directly in the most effective single Italian Fascist propaganda posters, the most specifically intellectually honest Italian Futurism exhibition (the 1986 Venice Biennale Futurism retrospective curated by Enrico Crispolti that was the first single Italian museum exhibition to address the Futurism-Fascism connection directly) remains the most specifically important single Italian curatorial statement on the movement's political legacy.
