FUTURISM: characteristics, authors and works

TO early 20th century we find that in most of Europe an artistic and cultural movement appears that is completely groundbreaking: the vanguards. This period is known as "Avant-garde" and it is a trend that was committed to creating more original artistic expressions, groundbreaking and consistent with the time in which society was. Within the Avant-garde we find different aesthetics among which we highlight Futurism. In this lesson from a TEACHER we want to talk about characteristics of Futurism, authors and works that were highlighted in this period.

To know what Futurism was, it is important to carry out a brief historical review that helps us understand the motivations for the emergence of this interesting artistic trend. The first thing we should know is that it falls within the literary avant-gardes of the 20th century, a cultural and artistic movement that began within the field of writing but that, little by little, spread to other disciplines. The case of Surrealism It is very popular because, thanks to this aesthetic, some of the most consecrated works of the 20th century were created.

One of the most important currents within the Avant-garde was Futurism, a movement that was officially unveiled in February 1909 when it was published in the newspaper Le Fígaro in Paris, the "Futurist Manifesto" by the poet Marinetti. In this manifesto we find the theoretical and aesthetic basis of this movement in which machines had achieved a great role in society and in the economy of the time.

Marinetti argued that the machines responded to very specific values ​​such as energy, strength and speed, therefore, the world had changed following these premises. Now was the time for the arts, and specifically literature, to change as well. Futurism is the name he chose for this current as it was totally facing the future.

Although at the beginning it was born as a literary movement, the truth is that Italian artists began to adapt the premises of this current to other disciplines. This is how new manifestos appeared: the Manifesto of the Futurist Painters (1910), the Manifesto of the Futurist sculpture (1912), the Manifesto The art between the noises (1912) and the Manifesto of the futurist architecture (1914).

Futurism appeared in italy and, little by little, it spread throughout Europe. In general, you should know that it is a movement that wanted to reflect the dynamism of the time in which it was lived, the importance of technology, constant movement, and so on. Next, we will analyze in detail the main characteristics of Futurism so that you can better understand the formation of this current.

To better understand what this artistic movement consisted of, it is important to stop at the theoretical basis defended by Marinetti. Here is a complete list with the main characteristics of Futurism that will help you better understand said aesthetics:

1. Anti-historical movement: Futurist artists do not look to the past, they do not focus on history and previous artists, but rather their objective is in the future, in progress, in advancing towards a new Era.
2. Originality: the objective of these artists was to find the voice of the moment, without influence from the past. Therefore, it is fully advocated to delve into originality and creativity to achieve unique works of art with their own personality.
3. Modern themes: in futurist works we find a high presence of themes contemporary to the artists and important in their time. Therefore, themes that refer to the modern world, cities or automobiles are the most abundant in these creations.
4. Universal dynamism: the energy and speed at which the modern world moved wanted to be reflected in the works of the Futurists. For this reason, different techniques were used that were committed to creating that necessary rhythm and dynamism. A clear example of this is the use of different colors and shapes in painting, something that produced more energy and rhythm.
5. Symbolism: for the creation of their artistic works, the Futurists resorted to symbolism since, thus, they could reflect all the force they wanted to denote with images or symbols that were accepted by the society.
6. Target language: Futurist authors wanted to eliminate any subjective presence in their writing and not have a trace sentimental in their texts, therefore, they bet on using a language that was objective and distant from their personality.
7. Importance of time: We have already commented that the speed of society was a great change that was experienced with the Industrial Revolution. For this reason, among the futurists, time became a leading element and was present in a great majority of creations.

Literary Futurism

We are going to focus now on discovering the characteristics of Futurism within literature since it is the subject that occupies us here. The most prominent are the following:

• Creative freedomFuturistic authors could innovate, test, and search for anything they wanted. The objective was to find the voice of his moment and of the future, therefore, originality and experimentation were essential.
• Writing as a visual phenomenon: many authors played with the creation of texts that were full of images to communicate, not through words, but through the mental images that appeared to us when we read.
• New typography: Another of the most notorious characteristics of Futurism in the literature is that the authors experienced using different colors, different fonts, etc., to generate more rhythm and dynamism in his works.
• Breaking of literary norms: It is common to find futuristic texts that break some of the basic rules of writing such as syntax, metrics, punctuation marks, etc. They were groundbreaking and wanted to create a before and after in literature and, for this, nothing better than to overcome the imposed rules.
• Exclamations: It is also very common to find futuristic books that are full of exclamations, an ideal resource to capture the speed and energy of the moment.

Although Futurism was an interesting movement and totally adapted to the time, the truth is that few artists managed to capture its essence and create good works of art. Here we are going to leave you a selection of authors and works of Futurism that are interesting:

• Filipo Tommaso Marinetti (1875-1944). He was the father of the genre and the one who wrote the Futurist Manifesto that laid the foundations of the current. He was a writer, poet, playwright, ideologue, and editor. Among his works we find titles such as: "Mafarka the Futurist" or "The Indomitable".
• Mario carli (1888-1935). He was a futurist novelist, essayist, and poet. Among his most outstanding works it is worth mentioning titles such as "My divinity" or "Arditism".
• Futuristic poetry: Futurism also greatly influenced poetry because it was a more symbolic and energetic type of writing. In this sense, it is worth highlighting authors such as Marinetti, Giovanni Papini, Giuseppe Ungaretti or Carlos Felipe Porfirio.

The Futurist movement succeeded in extensively renewing the techniques and principles on which art was created. It was a groundbreaking and original current that influenced later artistic currents.