An art movement started up in Italy, founded on a principle of Chaos, industrilisation and technological upheaval. They indulged the idea of war and went on to protest Italy’s neutrality during the war and in 1915 when the war eventually came many futurists signed up to fight in the war. A mark of courage I feel, and perhaps a reason to respect the futurists otherwise sexist and anti-intellectual attitudes.
While Sexism was nothing new and not specific to the futurists, it’s hard in these modern times to overlook the negative aspects. Perhaps an unfair opinion that we can’t help feeling with our more modern sensibilities.
The futurists also believed in the idea of anything old being wiped away and destroyed., disregarding the rules and tearing down libraries. Society and in conjunction art, cannot move forward and improve without looking to the past and knowing what works.
The pursuit of the new is not a bad thing, but it must go hand and hand with referring back to what we know to work and to improve upon it. That is my main complaint with the movement as a whole but it is not a complaint that takes away from my understanding of what it was Futurism was about.
It was about moving forward, seizing new ways of using materials and throwing aside anything deemed too old fashioned to be of value. It was a valuable step in terms of art movements and it set the foundations for what came after but my more modern mind has a hard time seeing past what I think are obvious flaws and for that I can say pretty conclusively that I am no futurist.
