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Umberto Boccioni: Discovering the Theorist of Futurism
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15583 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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2 / 1989 |
2,705 Words |
| Author
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Edward Jacobson
Edward Jacobson is an art critic based in New York. |
By the end of the first decade of the present century, a wave of important scientific and technological advances had began to alter man's conception both of the universe and of himself in ways that would fundamentally shape the future of Western society. Einstein's theory of relatively toppled the accepted model of stable matter inhabiting fixed space over constant time. He revealed that rather than disparate entities, matter and energy are manifestations of a larger, dynamic whole, as also are space and time, with the character of each being determined by relative points of view. Similarly, Bergson held that time should be understood not as it had been in the nineteenth century, but is, as a sequence of episodes, but as a continuous dimension of consciousness, the essence of which is change.
The discovery of such phenomena as radiation and X rays indicated that the atom is not the smallest particle of matter and that human perception provided only a partial link with reality. Nineteenth century positivism was in need of review-evidently the world was more subtle and complex than had previously been imagined.
The environment was undergoing changes at the hands of technology and industry as dramatic as those affecting man's epistemology. Suddenly, the nights were ablaze with electric lights, and voices were carried across vast distances by telephone wires. Automobiles whizzed along city streets, subways coursed underground, and planes soared overhead. Interest in locomotion led photographers to invent systems for recapturing the illusion of movement, and movie houses immediately sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic. The modern age had begun, and its muse was speed.
In the arts, the priests of the new age were the Futurists. Initially a literary movement, Futurism was founded by the Italian poet and novelist Filippo Tomasso Marinetti (1876-1944). In his "Futurist Manifesto" (February 20, 1909) he declared, "The world's splendor has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car…is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace." Extolling war, revolution, and industry, and condemning museums, libraries, and academies of every kind, the Futurist program would soon embrace every facet of life, from the visual arts to music, theater, cinema, choreography, politics--even cooking, clothing, and sexuality. The pioneers of the new movement announced, "For the new conditions of life, the Futurists intend to discover a new means of expression."
A young painter, Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), had for some time been
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