Edited from Wikipedia
Futurism (Italian: Futurismo) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized speed, technology, youth, and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane, and the industrial city. It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past.
It was influence particularly by the art movements Precisionism, Rayonism, and Vorticism and also:
- Art Deco (see also Wikipedia Art Deco )
- Constructivism (See also Wikipedia Constructivism)
- Surrealism
- Dada (See also Wikipedia Dada)
- Cubism
Although it was largely an Italian phenomenon, there were parallel movements in Russia, England, Belgium and elsewhere.
The Futurists practised in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, urban design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture, and even Futurist meals.
Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, Antonio Sant’Elia, Bruno Munari, Benedetta Cappa and Luigi Russolo, the Russians Natalia Goncharova, Velimir Khlebnikov, Igor Severyanin, David Burliuk, Aleksei Kruchenykh and Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Belgian Jules Schmalzigaug and the Portuguese Almada Negreiros.
Important Futurist works included:
- Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism
- Boccioni’s sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
- Balla’s painting Abstract Speed + Sound .
See my post: Filippo Marinetti
Although Futurism became identified with Fascism, it had leftist and anti-Fascist supporters. They tended to oppose Marinetti’s artistic and political direction of the movement, and in 1924 the socialists, communists and anarchists walked out of the Milan Futurist Congress. Futurism expanded to encompass many artistic domains and ultimately included painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre design, textiles, drama, literature, music and architecture.
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is a museum in London with a collection centred around Italian futurist artists and their paintings.