February 2012

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Futurism, the Italian modernist movement, was explosive and brilliant – the opening line of the Futurist Manifesto reads ‘We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness’ – and it was also occasionally bonkers. Futurism’s founder, Filippo Marinetti, called for a ban on the consumption of pasta, something unlikely to catch on in his homeland of Italy. The movement is commemorated at the moment by art events marking the 100th anniversary of the Futurist Manifesto.

The Tate’s current show ‘Futurism’ is worth a browse if you’re truly interested in the visual art of this period but falls short on providing – what I was hoping for – room after room of visually jagged, jarring, eye-scrunching canvases. Works such as Gino Severini’s ‘The Dance of the Pan-Pan at the Monico’ of 1909-1911 (above) where the subjects and objects are pulled into their surroundings or emerge from them; or Giacomo Balla’s ‘Street Lamp’ where the glow that the light throws is fractured and seemingly never-ending. Or his ‘Flight of the Swallows’, or another composition where a dog being walked and a violin being played are fused in an expression of speed and movement connecting each to its environment.

Of course there are some works of this nature. But by room three of nine (only the first two large rooms are dedicated to Italian Futurists but not the best or most exciting of their output) the theme becomes the international response, or lack of, to the movement. In other words, the exhibition becomes simply what other artists, not generally regarded as Futurists, happened to be doing at the time.

Hence there are rooms of Cubism, Russian Cubo-Futurism, French Orphism (Leger, Delauney) and the Brits are represented by the short-lived Vorticism. There are some choice works on show from each of these movements but there is an overall sense of this being ‘filling’, particularly as the accompanying information goes on to tell you that, for example, Delauney ‘bitterly rejected’ the Futurists (the feeling was mutual according to Boccioni) as did Wyndham Lewis by launching Vorticism. Women numbered relatively highly among Russia’s avant-garde painters and they were not so taken by Marinetti’s misogyny (the manifesto calls for ‘contempt for women’).

It could of course be that the dearth of Italian Futurism on show has to do with the movement’s anniversary being celebrated in its home nation also. Futurismo 100 is 3 different exhibitions held this year in Italy. ‘Illuminazioni’ has already taken place at the Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Roveret, but you still have time to see ‘Atrazioni’ at the Museo Correr, Venice until 4 October and from 15 October to 25 January ‘Simultaneita’ at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.

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