Andrew Martin Contextual Influences in Art and Design

Futurism

In this essay I will be talking about the Contextual Influences on the art movement Futurism.
Futurism is the most important Italian avant-garde movement of the 20
th
century. It was first
observed in 1909 and founded by writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. By this point in time the
developed world had already experienced the Industrial Revolution, between 1760 and the 1820s.
This was the transition from hand processing manufacturing methods to mechanical, chemical, and
iron processing methods.

Marinetti, a poet, wrote The Futurist Manifesto, which detailed the futuristic perspective of poetry.
This manifesto was first published in the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dellEmilia in February 1909
and later in the French Le Figaro. This manifesto stated that:

We affirm that the worlds magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of
speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive
breatha roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of
Samothrace.

And that:

We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the
multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant
nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway
stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of
their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a
glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives
whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and
the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer
like an enthusiastic crowd.

It is very clear from these two quotes that the Futurists rejoiced in modernity, industry and
technology. This attitude was not just evident in poetry, though. It also had roots in painting and
sculpture, and the Futurists worked in established forms of media. The Futurists were influenced by
machines, cities, noise, speed and pollution; and wanted to highlight the beauty of modern life.

Futurism spread quickly throughout Europe creating off-shoot movements, such as Vorticism in the
United Kingdom. I will talk more about Vorticism later in this essay, but I would like to concentrate
on the rest of Europe for now. Russian Futurism only focussed on art and literature, whereas
European Futurism also had roots in architecture, music and film.

Some of the major players in the Futurist movement were artists Giacomo Balla, Kazimir Malevich
and Natalia Goncharova. Here I will talk about their work and how it relates to the Futurist
movement. I am going to start with the Italian artist Giacomo Balla, and a work entitled Street Light.

Andrew Martin Contextual Influences in Art and Design


This picture was completed by Balla in 1909, at the very start of the Futurist movement. It is a
picture of a cityscape with the emphasis on the light from a street light. The street light is a very
basic form of technology, but it sums up the context very well. Also, in this picture I notice a lot of
small, white chevron shapes facing towards the light. This seems to signify people looking towards
the future. There is also an element of darkness into light, depicted by the darker edges of the
picture and the people looking towards the light in the centre.

Street Light is an early example of Futurist art, but it captures the zeitgeist very well. Other examples
of Futurist art include The Cyclist by Natalia Goncherova and The Knife Grinder by Kazimir Malevich.
The Cyclist was completed in 1913, just before the outbreak of World War 1, and is possibly a better
example of movement and speed.

Andrew Martin Contextual Influences in Art and Design


Natalia Goncherova has managed to depict movement in her picture by using a fragmentation of
form. The blurring of the cyclists body and the bicycle wheels suggest speed as well as movement.
The colours and background scenery in the picture also seem to hint at a built-up area, such as a city
or town. Having read through Marinettis Futurist Manifesto, I can see how this relates to The
Cyclist. I think the bicycle is a major advance in technology, as well, because it has provided people
with another important form of transport, allowing us to make the most of space. In The Cyclist I can
see that there is an addition of time, which is not evident in earlier paintings.

I have also looked at Kazimir Malevichs painting The Knife Grinder, which was painted in 1912
during the Futurist movement. It is perhaps also the point where Futurism begins to influence other
art movements, so I am taking the opportunity to research this further.



Andrew Martin Contextual Influences in Art and Design
In The Knife Grinder Malevich uses some of the aesthetic influences of other futurist artists, but
added his own cubist ideas. This gave him a reputation for being the pioneer of the Cubo-Futurism
movement, although he later abandoned this for Suprematism. I can see the influence of
technology, movement, and the modern city is strong in this image. It is also clear that Cubism is a
strong influence for Malevich as the strong lines and geometric shapes show in The Knife Grinder.

Shortly after The Knife Grinder Malevich moved more towards Suprematism, which concentrates on
basic geometric shapes including squares, rectangles, circles and lines. These would be painted in a
limited range of colours giving a striking contrast in the image. You can see examples of this in The
Black Square and The Black Circle, both by Malevich. Suprematism and Cubo-Futurism are clearly
influenced by Futurism, but I wanted to consider what else may have been influenced, both at the
time and later, even up to the present day.

Futurism began in Italy, but quickly spread to other areas of Europe including Russia and United
Kingdom. In Russia the movement was based in art and literature, but the rest of Europe had
Futurist roots in architecture, music and film. In the UK, however, Futurism began to influence
another art movement; Vorticism.

Vorticism was a short-lived movement of art and poetry in Britain, which was announced in the first
issue of BLAST magazine in 1914. The principle players within the movement were Wydham Lewis
and Ezra Pound. Their manifesto rejected landscapes and nudes in favour of geometric styling,
leaning towards abstraction. The movement evolved from Cubism principally, but it is more closely
related to Futurism because of its embrace of the machine age and modernity. Vorticism diverged
from Futurism with Vorticist paintings showing bold lines and harsh colours, which draws the
viewers eye into the centre of the canvas. There were eleven signatories of the Vorticist Manifesto,
and the second issue of BLAST magazine contained work by Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot amongst
others. Based in London, but with international ambition, Vorticism came to an end after World War
1. The Vorticist artists were drained of their Vorticist zeal following their witnessing of unfolding
human disaster during the war.

Futurism has had a big influence on movies ever since its demise. Some of the main movies to
contain Futurist themes include Metropolis (1927); I, Robot (2004); Logans Run (1976); Minority
Report (2002); and The Matrix (1999). Futurism also influenced all kinds of music too, and there are
a number of notable pieces of music worth mentioning. During the 1990s Monster Magnet, a Heavy
Rock group from New Jersey, used a Theremin to enhance some of their music. The Theremin is a
musical instrument which creates strange sound effects that were also used in film soundtracks.

Bon Jovi is another group who have used Futurist influences in their music. If you listen to Bon Jovi
tracks Living On A Prayer and Its My Life you can hear some of the Futurist influences quite clearly.
At the start of both of these tracks guitarist Richie Sambora uses a plastic tube to enhance the sound
effects from the instrument. Also, there is a great example of Futurist influences on the album What
About Now? On the front cover of the CD, Bon Jovi have created a collage of art work, which uses
augmented reality to allow the art to come alive when viewed through a phone or tablet app.

Andrew Martin Contextual Influences in Art and Design
This is an obvious move towards the future as augmented reality is starting to be used more in
gaming, film and art. It is good to see that the influence of Futurism is still strong now, although the
movement came to an end quickly.