What is Futurism art?



Futurism (1909 to 1918 AD)



Futurism is a modern art movement that began when 20th Century took hold of Europe. Artists took elements from Cubism, Surrealism and Neo-impressionisam to paint futuristic art that was dynamic and often expressed speed and motion. The focus was about creating a vision for the future, and often glorified war and the machine age.



The movement was invented by poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909 and first gained followed in Italy when he published “Manifesto of Futurism” in “Le Figaro”, a popular newspaper in Paris. Futurism was vehement about disowning the past, and aimed at freeing Italy from its cultural heritage. The Manifesto said, “We will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries”.



The movement was first a literacy one, with novels, manifestos and poems issuing declarative and bombastic statements. Soon, the visual and performing artists also entered the sphere. Other well-known Futurism artists were Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.



After World War I, many artists rejected the often nationalistic sentiments of Futurism, since many of its revolutionary artists became part of Italy’s fascist regime, and the movement gradually declined.



Examples



Dancer at Pigalle: Painted by Italian artist Gino Severini in Paris, it shows the movement of a dancer through her swirling dress and intersecting lines. There are also four stage lights that focus on her, framing her in the centre of the image. This is a classic representation of a futuristic painting with elements of Cubism embedded in it.



The Cyclist: Natalia Goncharova’s painting shows a cyclist pedalling fast, passing by stores with advertisements on them. The movement is so well rendered that you can see the advertisements floating over the cyclist, to portray speed. The cyclist’s legs, body and feet are used well to indicate motion.



Battle of lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras: This painting by Joseph Stella is a cacophony of shapes and colours, all mirroring the soul of Coney Island, including its famous roller-coaster. The entire painting, with its bright lights and mardi gras crowd, creates the feeling of a joyous celebration.



Wow facts




  • Futurism, in the literary sphere, developed a language that mirrored the dynamism and ruthlessness of the new world. The futurists established new genres and created “parole in liberta” (words-in-freedom) or free-word poetry. This was poetry liberated from linear typography, syntax and spelling.

  • Futurists used a number of new techniques to express motion and speed, including repetition, blurring and using lines of force. The last method was inspired by Cubism.



 



Picture Credit : Google


What was Surrealism?



In the early 1900s, following the short burst of a movement called the Dada movement came another that invested in the unconscious and the surreal corners of one’s imagination. This came to be called Surrealism. Inspired by the words of revolutionary Karl Marx and most importantly, father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, the movement aimed to unlock one’s consciousness and reveal its true nature and creativity.



The Dada movement that preceded this was also about moving away from traditional forms of art with a more aggressive approach. This one, in comparison, focussed on dreams and breaking the chains of logic, and influenced art, literature, philosophy, films and music. The forerunners of this movement were Salvador Dali, Andre Breton (writer), Yves Tanguy and Joan Miro.



Surrealism believed in overlooking reality and creating from within. Sometimes, to achieve this, artists conducted different experiments on themselves to reach a state from where they could unconsciously create. One of the experiments was hypnosis but they soon deemed it as too dangerous. In their core, surrealists tried to liberate the imagination and reach new depths of human psyche.



Examples



The Persistence of Memory



Probably the most iconic Surrealist painting in history, this work by Salvador Dali, with dripping clocks, is an ode to time. The painting portrays Dali’s subconscious and also conveys a simple message – that time holds no meaning.



The Son of Man



This painting by Rene Magritte is a self-portrait. This painting aims to convey the message that not everything is as it seems and there’s more than one side to a person.



Harlequin’s Carnival



One of Joan Miro’s most iconic work of art, this painting is about the hallucinations that Miro saw when he went through a rough patch and too poor to often eat three full meals. Of the painting, Miro said, “I tried to translate the hallucinations that hunger would produce. I didn’t depict what I’d see in my drams, as the Surrealist often did, but what hunger would produce: a form of trance.”



Wow facts




  • Sigmund Freud preferred the works of Salvador Dali to any other surrealist painters and felt that the unconscious was being manifested into the conscious world through his art. Dali’s paintings border on dreams and illusions, making him one of the Surrealist movement’s most important and popular painters.

  • Many women joined the Surrealist movement, even though they were quick to be dismissed by the male surrealists. Meret Oppenheim, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varo are a few painters who brought their own personal stories into the movement.



 



Picture Credit : Google