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Italian Futurism - Yesterday’s Style of the Future

  • up2198805
  • Apr 25
  • 7 min read

Updated: May 20

Figure 1 - The front cover of Poesia.
Figure 1 - The front cover of Poesia.

In 1909, a strange page made its way into an edition of the Italian magazine, Poesia. The title reads “DECLARATION OF FUTURISM” in bold capitals, and what follows is a list of principles that will come to form the basis of the Italian Futurist movement. The manifesto professes an intent to “glorify the love of danger”, explains its deep love for “the beauty of speed”, “aggressive movement”, “war… militarism, patriotism”, and proposes its intent to create docks, stations, factories, bridges, locomotives, and aeroplanes ("DECLARATION OF FUTURISM", 1909).


Figure 2 - Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1910-11) by Carlo Carrà
Figure 2 - Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1910-11) by Carlo Carrà

Even in its earliest iteration, Italian Futurism branded itself as a movement focused on… well, movement. The manifesto is written in a jumping, agitated manner - flitting between topics, interrupting sentences with dashed interjections, and listing more and more elements of the style as it continues. Point 11 is simply a multi-line list of all of the technological advancements that the Italian Futurists like ("DECLARATION OF FUTURISM", 1909). One of Italian Futurism’s more notable stances was its devotion to speed, modernity and movement which is seen even in their early paintings. Notably, artist Carlo Carrà incorporated the technique of fracturing in his painting "Funeral of the Anarchist Galli", in order to evoke an intense and frenetic sense of movement in the composition (The Art Story).


This devotion to speed and modernity existed alongside its counter-part - a hatred of the old, slow ways of society. The aim of Futurism was to “sweep away traditional artistic notions and replace them with an energetic celebration of the machine age” (The Art Story) - the focus was on the bright, fast, exciting future. For these reasons, it may come as little surprise that Italian Futurism opposed several institutions of its day, most notably (according to Futurist Filippo Marinetti) the “snobbish religion of the past, which is nourished by the evil influence of museums” (ARTe For Everybody). The hatred of both organised religion, which had existed and maintained a status quo for centuries, and museums, which maintain painstaking records of the past, seemed extreme but in keeping with the rest of the movement’s philosophy. Marjorie Perloff also furthers this point by expressing that the love of war asserted in the early manifesto may really have meant a desire for a “cultural revolution” involving the destruction of “museums, libraries [and] academies of every kind”, as opposed to a real military war (Dahshan, 2020).


However, despite its clearly asserted desire to move forward into the future, Futurism always found itself strangely lodged in the past. The 1900s would eventually see a wider expansion of voting rights across the world, most notably for wealthy women in the early 1900s. Yet, despite this being a near possibility in 1909, the Italian Futurist Manifesto is adamant in its hatred of “moralism, feminism, and all utilitarian cowardice” and expresses a desire to “glorify… the scorn of women” ("DECLARATION OF FUTURISM", 1909). The 1900s arguably marked one of the biggest expansions in women’s rights, and still at the precipice of all this change, Italian Futurism proudly declared itself to be against feminism and the furthering of gender equality, in keeping with attitudes of the past. Additionally, while Futurism claimed complete opposition to the church, Jessica R. Strom notes a strange compatibility between Christianity and Italian Futurism in her piece “Elements of the Divine in Futurist Art and Literature”. She highlights Italian Futurism’s tendency to “constantly [focus] on imagery that represents precisely the things it hopes to forget”, noting that accepted Christian elements were sometimes just neatly replaced with Futurist ideas that held a similar purpose, such as the “replacement of traditional religious symbology with that of speed” (Strom, 2010). She highlights the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, which still held immense power, as being a reason for the close-knit relationship between this art movement of the future and this religion of the past.


Figure 3 - Materia (1912) by Umberto Boccioni.
Figure 3 - Materia (1912) by Umberto Boccioni.

Ideology aside, even in terms of actual artistic skill and style, the Italian Futurist movement was steeped in art styles of the past. Futurism often borrowed heavily from cubist works, as several Futurist painters were very inspired by a 1911 visit to the Salon d’Automne in Paris. The influence of the style is notable, especially in their early works. Emily Casden notes the similarities between cubism and Umberto Boccioni’s painting “Materia” which are clear from a glance; an abstracted figure seems to loom in the canvas, twisted and hidden slightly by geometric shapes, patterns, and warm colours - all elements of Cubist art (Casden). Additionally, the previously mentioned "Funeral of the Anarchist Galli" started with Carlo Carrà using a "more traditional perspective", and the composition only switched to incorporate the fracturing technique after the aforementioned trip to Paris, where Carrà viewed some of Picasso's Cubist works (The Art Story). Italian Futurism was so fixated on being entirely original that it went out of its way to avoid paying homage to the styles it employed as inspiration, in order to make the finished works seem more unique.


I feel that this method of creating new works from existing materials while ignoring the original source is incredibly reminiscent of the ongoing struggle between artists and “the future of art” today. Over the last ten years, there has been a huge surge in a number of forms of digital creation which can all be combined under the umbrella of claiming that they are “the future of art”. These include things like NFTs, “AI art”, and experiments in virtual reality and the metaverse. Dan Olsen's nearly 2 hour long video essay, "The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse" covers a wide range of topics relating mainly to the creation of VR platform Decentraland, and takes time to thoroughly deconstruct the common talking point that VR is the future. He notes that VR has been the future for nearly a decade now, and yet still the medium of the future has very little to say for itself. Despite this, the creators of Decentraland continue with a "narrative of inevitability" about their utility because they "need to convince you... by any means necessary" (Folding Ideas, 2023) to buy in now with a promise of a successful future, so that they can continue to exist today. The best way to demonstrate this is with an example.


Figure 4 - A shot of one outfit from the Decentraland 2022 fashion week.
Figure 4 - A shot of one outfit from the Decentraland 2022 fashion week.

Decentraland held a fashion week in 2022, 5 years after the official launch of the platform. Despite this being one its biggest publicity events to date, the experience had mixed reviews, with a Vogue review calling it “possibly premature”. (McDowell, 2022) Further critiques noted glitches, delays, and graphics that were easily outdone by other multiple other competing platforms (such as Roblox's 2021 Gucci garden). It is clear that even though Decentraland knew that this would be a huge event that brought lots of attention to the site, they just didn’t have the skill or team to be able to pull-off a barely functional event. To any other platform or product, a reception like this would be devastating. A fashion week with glitches and “rudimentary” graphics is not a fashion week that anyone wants to be a part of. And yet, for proponents of this "style of the future", the repeated failures are woven into the premature success story they tell about themselves. This event, with 5 years of Decentraland progress behind it, was described by the head of the Metaverse Fashion Week as “just the beginning”, and the poor graphics were chalked up to user-end computers just not being powerful enough to be able to run the event in the quality that is typically expected (McDowell, 2022), as opposed to the actual construction of the event itself.


Movements like Futurism and the work of Decentraland rely heavily on getting people invested in the future and learning to accept promises of a glorious tomorrow without any proof of its feasibility. Italian Futurism waged war on women, the church, peace itself, and the concept of even daring to maintain a historical record of its culture. Its stance appeared to be that the future was going to be so incredible, so filled with speed and violence and movement, that there would be no reason to ever think about what had come before. Naturally, these grandiose visions failed to materialise, and even as the movement held sway over the art world, it couldn’t separate itself from the traditions and preceding art styles that it claimed to oppose. Decentraland represents the modern equivalent of this, a desire to create something that not only defines an era, but does so completely separate from all inspiration, influence or surrounding culture. This desire to create without needing to share the credit, or without needing to place yourself within a larger tradition of human creativity is shared among the two styles. They both find themselves “shunning the past while yearning for its glory” (Dahshan, 2020), unwilling to admit that no idea is created in a vacuum, and paying the price as a result. The artistic merits and abilities of both are hindered by the desire to create the appearance of innovation for ulterior motives, as opposed to actually innovating.


Figure 5 - The album cover for Cave World (2022) by Viagra Boys.
Figure 5 - The album cover for Cave World (2022) by Viagra Boys.

This post's thumbnail was inspired by Viagra Boys' Cave World (2022) album cover. The album mainly critiques conspiracy theories and the kinds of people who confront the idea of a changing, progressing world, with a sense of increasing paranoia and a desire to return back to a familiar past. The Italian Futurists claimed to be designing for the future while disregarding every progressing issue outside of the technological, and this album draws similar comparisons to people who support modern day conspiracies and movements that idolise the past.


Sources:

ARTe For Everybody. Futurism & Constructivism. https://www.arteforeverybody.com/futurism-constructivism

Dahshan, J. (2020). How Italian Futurism Influenced the Rise of Fascism. artmejo. https://artmejo.com/how-italian-futurism-influenced-the-rise-of-fascism/

DECLARATION OF FUTURISM (1909, July). Poesia. Issue 3 - 6. https://monoskop.org/images/1/1c/Poesia_5_3-6_Apr-Jul_1909.pdf#page=3

Folding Ideas. (2023, March 26). The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZhdpLXZ8Q

Strom, J. (2010). Elements of the Divine in Futurist Art and Literature. Carte Italiane, Volume 2, Issue 6. https://escholarship.org/content/qt2041r1c1/qt2041r1c1_noSplash_44e5bba3b4dbacce7c98523c4914dbb4.pdf?t=laldw4

McDowell, M. (2022, March 29). Metaverse Fashion Week: The hits and misses. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/metaverse-fashion-week-the-hits-and-misses


Figures:

Figure 1 - DECLARATION OF FUTURISM (1909, July). Poesia. Issue 3 - 6. https://monoskop.org/images/1/1c/Poesia_5_3-6_Apr-Jul_1909.pdf#page=3

Figure 2 - MoMA. Carlo Carrà. Funeral of the Anarchist Galli 1910-11. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79225

Figure 4 - McDowell, M. (2022, March 29). Metaverse Fashion Week: The hits and misses. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/technology/metaverse-fashion-week-the-hits-and-misses

Figure 5 - Viagra Boys. (2022). Cave World [Album]. YEAR0001.

 
 
 

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