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Futurism 1909-1944
Origin
Italy
Key characteristics
Art: dynamic, abstract forms
Graphic design: expressive typography, broke the
traditional rules of layout
Architecture: raw, unfinished surfaces; sweeping,
dynamic forms
Key facts
The first movement in the history of art to be
engineered and managed like a business
Embraced technological progress and celebrated
the potential and dynamism of the modern age
The widely influential typography of Marinetti
abandoned traditional grammar, punctuation,
and format, to create vivid pictorial
typographic pages
Inspired by the mechanism of war which led to
war being glorified in resulting works
See also
de Stijl
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1914
Zang Tumb Tumb: F.T. Marinetti
The cover for this
book, written and
designed by
Marinetti,
exemplifies the
futurist esthetic.
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Italian futurism was perhaps the first
movement in the history of art to be
engineered and managed like a business.
Founded in 1909 by the Italian writer
and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,
initially as a literary movement, futurism
introduced the use of the manifesto as
a public means to advertise its artistic
philosophy, and also as a polemic
weapon against the academic and
conservative world. Marinetti, along with
his supporters, penned numerous
manifestos, not only on literature, but
also on music, dance, performance,
painting, and architecture. Marinetti’s
first futurist manifesto, written in French
and published in Parisian newspaper Le
Figaro before any of the new futurist art
existed, typified his understanding of the
power of the media to work for him and
to propagate his ideas.
The impact of radically new forms
of technology had a profound effect on
Western culture at this time; they were
at the core of the futurist enterprise.
The futurists loved speed, noise, machines,
and cities. They embraced technological
progress and celebrated the potential
and dynamism of the modern age.
Giacomo Balla was the first designer to
experiment with the practical application
of futurist theory in the decorative arts,
closely followed by the designer and
artist Fortunato Depero. Depero even
went so far as to set up a craft workshop
for futurist art in Rovereto that operated
throughout the 1920s.
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1914
Electric Power
Plant: Antonio Sant’Elia
(click to enlarge)
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1913
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space: Umberto Boccioni
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In art, paintings were characterized
by dynamic and abstract geometric
forms, while in book design the futurists
rejected traditional typographical forms
and page designs in favor of expressive
typography and structure. Like the
futurist painters, Marinetti used his
poetry and book work to express modern
life. He abandoned traditional grammar,
punctuation, and format to create vivid,
pictorial typographic pages. Marinetti’s
theories were widely influential and
resulted in the production of hundreds
of futurist books. Virtually anonymous
covers disguised the explosive pages
within as traditional typefaces were
eschewed in favor of newly designed
typefaces that leaked across the pages
without any respect for the so-called
“rules of layout.”
Futurists viewed the design and
production of a book as symbolic of
the machine age. Modern materials
and methods were employed, as seen in
Fortunato Depero’s famous 1927 Depero
Futurista (also known as The Nailed
Book). This was held together by two
aluminum bolts—a true manifesto of the
machine age. Depero’s innovation was by
no means confined to the cover. Inside
a wealth of typographic innovations
jumped from the pages; different
typefaces, text formed into various
shapes, different papers and colors were
all used. The book had neither up nor
down, right nor left, so that in order to
read the text, it had to be turned round
and round again.
In architecture, the futurist esthetic
was largely promoted through the
architectural proposals of Sant’Elia.
It was characterized by raw, unfinished
surfaces, violent coloring, and sweeping
dynamic forms. Sant’Elia died in 1916,
but his Manifesto of Futurist Architecture
exerted a strong influence on the
members of de Stijl, who received it the following year.
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1997 – (still under
construction, 2005)
MAXXI: National
Center of
Contemporary
Arts, Rome, Italy:
Zaha Hadid
Hadid is renowned
for the futuristic
architectural
paintings and
drawings she
creates during the
production phase
of her work. The
concept for this
project is based
on the idea of
“irrigating” the
large urban field
with linear display
surfaces, weaving
a dense texture of
interior and
exterior spaces.
(click to enlarge)
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2004
Book-End: Sara de
Bondt for Shift
Reminiscent of
the infamous
mechanical binding
that characterized
Fortunato Depero’s
1927 The Nailed
Book, here stacks of
back issues of Shift
publications are
drilled through and
held together with
industrial screws to
create bookends.
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Key figures
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944)
Giacomo Balla (1871–1958)
Antonio Sant’Elia (1888–1916)
Fortunato Depero (1892–1960)
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Fields of work
Writer
Artist/Designer
Architect
Artist/Furniture designer
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Excerpted with permission from Designs of the Times: Using Key Movements and Styles for Contemporary Design (Rotovision) by Lakshmi Bhaskaran. Copyright © 2005 Rotovision.
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