Futurism

Question 1

Futurist Manifesto date and key points

Answer 1

1909 - sought to create a world that celebrated war, violence, courage and revolt, seeing ‘new beauty’ as the beauty of speed and machinery. Called for the destruction of libraries, moralism and feminism. Rejected tradition & celebrated anarchy

Question 2

Political situation in Italy

Answer 2

• in economic crisis and they were unable to keep up with the sudden political changes: this caused many uprisings
• There was a recognition that political change was needed and the futurists wanted to be the driving force of this change

Question 3

Street Light - artist and date

Answer 3

1909, Giacomo Balla

Question 4

Revolt - artist and date

Answer 4

1911, Luigi Russolo

Question 5

Abstract speed, a car has passed - artist and date

Answer 5

1913, Giacomo Balla

Question 6

overall aim of streetlight

Answer 6

Attempting to destroy traditionalism by presenting the subject of technology and modernity

Question 7

Street light: inspiration of subject matter

Answer 7

Inspired by one of the first street lamps to be built in Rome (electric street lamps being installed all over the city at this time in Rome)

Question 8

What style had Balla previously worked in that informed street light

Answer 8

Divisionism which is evident here especially in the separation of colours into each individual stroke of light

Question 9

street light: relationship to the manifesto release

Answer 9

painted a year after = initial response & focuses on the celebration of technology part (as well as the superiority of men with the moon vs light part)

Question 10

Use of moon in street light responds to which Marinetti book

Answer 10

‘Lets murder the moonshine’, where he describes the lamps as “300 electric moons” cancelling out the moonlight.

Question 11

symbolism of the moon in Street light

Answer 11

associated with women and with love - man-made and masculine force conquers the feminine - relates to the anti-women sentiment of the manifesto

Question 12

Why was Russolo’s presentation of an uprising in ‘revolt’ significant

Answer 12

The artist had first hand experience of the uprisings, unrest and social injustices that grew out of the conflict between rapid industrialisation and an outmoded social structure

Question 13

What does the collection of faceless people do

Answer 13

unifies the masses of the working class in their struggle for power and their facelessness perhaps corresponds with the ‘non-human type’ that Marinetti refers to in the Futurist manifesto - Marinetti had a goal to eradicate sexual difference itself resulting in this non-human type

Question 14

What evidence suggests the colours might be related to sounds

Answer 14

the painting or sounds, noises and smells’ manifesto 1913 - which suggests that colours can be linked to sounds, with red being a colour that shouts: the hellish red captures the sense of uproar - futurist emphasis on aggression and violence

Question 15

how does the yellow and green link to the futurist aims

Answer 15

the extreme yellow and green that seems to run down the canvas - acidic colours evoke a chemical explosion - links to the futurist emphasis on technology and modernity

Question 16

abstract speed, the car has passed shows what

Answer 16

Part of a triptych - shows a simplified, agricultural landscape that has been tinged with the pink of exhaust traces which suggest a car (now absent) that has passed through and caused disturbance in the atmosphere - shown by the curved lines of force

Question 17

Car has passed :

what influence do the shard like forms suggest

Answer 17

Everything is simplified down to stylised shapes -suggests the cubist influence after the futurists’ exposure to the style upon their 1911 visit to Paris

Question 18

Car has passed:

Though it shows nature, why is not at all celebration on nature

Answer 18

Nature is being subsumed to technology & has been rendered in technological ways: the shapes look as if they have been cut out with a compass - again relates to the emphasis on technology and modernity triumphing over nature (from the manifesto)

disregards nature by putting it through a modern filter

Question 19

What is Photodynamism

Answer 19

pioneered by Futurist photographer Anton Giulio Bragaglia in the early 20th Century
it is a technique to capture energy and movement by repeating forms in close succession