Great article and very well researched. I did my Art Foundation Course dissertation on Futurism, which I was obsessed with. I featured a drawing by Futurist architect Chiattone as the cover of the very first issue of my fanzine Adventures in Reality. The fascist element to them was the downside. They came over as naive, and some of them paid the ultimate price for their enthusiasm for war, though I love the irony that Boccioni didn't meet his end in a glorious futurist explosion in battle, but by falling off his horse (hardly the most modern form of transport) behind the lines!
Thank you Alan. I did figure in publishing this that there would be readers who probably had studied deeper than myself, and I appreciate you are one of them, and I'd be interested in knowing how far your Art Foundation dissertation deviated into the Art of Noise. They wouldn't have been the only people "naive" about "the Great War" but for some of them to come out of it seeking a more militaristic future yet, that part suggests a mindset, especially on the part of Marionetti. I do believe that Russolo, and Buccioni also, signed up for the Lombardo Voluntary Bicycle Regiment, bikes being relatively modern at the time. Presumably, they weren't so effective in the mud, hence the horses. But that part is all conjecture. Thanks for the comment.
My dissertation focussed largely on the work of Boccioni, especially his few sculptures, with reference to Russolo and the others mainly for context. So enamoured was I by the concepts of Futurism (not the war or fascism bits, the artistic elements!) that for my end of year show, rather than use the exhibition space allocated in the college, I printed up fly posters and pasted them up in the middle of the night in various dank subways around the city centre in Coventry (an exercise not without its own risks!) and insisted my tutors toured round those subways next day to see them. Many were vandalised and grafitti'd, which I felt added to them. Only one of my tutors got the point, the rest complained that I had strayed too far from the brief!
I think a number of them were aristocrats, which you had to be to enjoy the luxury of creating modern art at the time, rather than struggling to survive. Tbh the art establishment often represents the very worst traits of snobbery and elitism, as true today for 'modern' art (which is no longer modern!) as it was for the establishment back then that the Futurists railed noisily against. I went to an exhibition of Futurist art at the Tate Modern a few years back and was hugely disappointed at the hushed reverence of the galleries with futurist paintings hanging limply on the walls and sleepy museum guards in attendance to keep order. No riots, no clanging noises, no declaiming of manifestos. I was sorely tempted to let off smoke bombs, throw paint, and sound a klaxton in order to help the exhibition to better meet its true purpose, but cowardice got the better of me!
Fascinating stuff, Tony. I had a very superficial awareness/understanding of these folks and their movement - largely through their influence on Horn and ZTT - but this piece greatly expanded my knowledge on the subject. Thank you!
Thank you Dan. Every now and then it does us all good to get stuck into our history. In the modern world of which the Futurists could barely conceive even though they tried more than most, we are expected to have short attention spans. But attention to detail is very helpful at times, and i too learned so much from researching and writing this deep dive.
Great article and very well researched. I did my Art Foundation Course dissertation on Futurism, which I was obsessed with. I featured a drawing by Futurist architect Chiattone as the cover of the very first issue of my fanzine Adventures in Reality. The fascist element to them was the downside. They came over as naive, and some of them paid the ultimate price for their enthusiasm for war, though I love the irony that Boccioni didn't meet his end in a glorious futurist explosion in battle, but by falling off his horse (hardly the most modern form of transport) behind the lines!
Thank you Alan. I did figure in publishing this that there would be readers who probably had studied deeper than myself, and I appreciate you are one of them, and I'd be interested in knowing how far your Art Foundation dissertation deviated into the Art of Noise. They wouldn't have been the only people "naive" about "the Great War" but for some of them to come out of it seeking a more militaristic future yet, that part suggests a mindset, especially on the part of Marionetti. I do believe that Russolo, and Buccioni also, signed up for the Lombardo Voluntary Bicycle Regiment, bikes being relatively modern at the time. Presumably, they weren't so effective in the mud, hence the horses. But that part is all conjecture. Thanks for the comment.
My dissertation focussed largely on the work of Boccioni, especially his few sculptures, with reference to Russolo and the others mainly for context. So enamoured was I by the concepts of Futurism (not the war or fascism bits, the artistic elements!) that for my end of year show, rather than use the exhibition space allocated in the college, I printed up fly posters and pasted them up in the middle of the night in various dank subways around the city centre in Coventry (an exercise not without its own risks!) and insisted my tutors toured round those subways next day to see them. Many were vandalised and grafitti'd, which I felt added to them. Only one of my tutors got the point, the rest complained that I had strayed too far from the brief!
I think a number of them were aristocrats, which you had to be to enjoy the luxury of creating modern art at the time, rather than struggling to survive. Tbh the art establishment often represents the very worst traits of snobbery and elitism, as true today for 'modern' art (which is no longer modern!) as it was for the establishment back then that the Futurists railed noisily against. I went to an exhibition of Futurist art at the Tate Modern a few years back and was hugely disappointed at the hushed reverence of the galleries with futurist paintings hanging limply on the walls and sleepy museum guards in attendance to keep order. No riots, no clanging noises, no declaiming of manifestos. I was sorely tempted to let off smoke bombs, throw paint, and sound a klaxton in order to help the exhibition to better meet its true purpose, but cowardice got the better of me!
Fascinating stuff, Tony. I had a very superficial awareness/understanding of these folks and their movement - largely through their influence on Horn and ZTT - but this piece greatly expanded my knowledge on the subject. Thank you!
Thank you Dan. Every now and then it does us all good to get stuck into our history. In the modern world of which the Futurists could barely conceive even though they tried more than most, we are expected to have short attention spans. But attention to detail is very helpful at times, and i too learned so much from researching and writing this deep dive.
Great stuff Tony!
I was figuring you would like it!