Futurism, Modernity and Style

The only modern movement to be largely independent of Paris, Futurism was nevertheless born there when an article was published in Le Figaro announcing `a new beauty ... a roaring motor car, which runs like a machine-gun, is more beautiful than the Winged Victory of Samothrace. We wish to glorify war.' In 1912 the Futurist Exhibition was also held in Paris, and then moved on all over Europe, causing riots and general uproar. Here we examine the work of Italian and Russian Futurists such as Russolo, Boccioni, Larionov and Goncharova, and their relationship with the French Cubists. What they all had in common was an approach to avant-garde art which can broadly be termed `dynamism,' the attempt to present movement. As a Futurist manifesto put it: `universal dynamism must be rendered as dynamic sensation ... motion and light destroy the substance of objects.'

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