The Futurist Manifesto, composed by FT Marinetti and published in 1909, on the front page of Le Figaro, sparks not only the ignition of The Futurist Movement, but the entire avant-garde of the 20th Century.

Subsequent movements – such as Vorticism, Dadaism, Surrealism etc. – would be heavily indebted to this manifesto. Either, supporting the Futurists, or using them as a foil, to put forward their own agendas. Importantly, though, each movement would adopt Marinetti’s manifesto-ing and see this Manifesto as the standard to meet or beat. 

Welcome to the first episode of The Manifest Image.

https://archive.org/details/FuturistManifesto

The Futurist Manifesto

How do you murder sentimentality, comfortable sensuality, and exhaustion?...How do you kill the moonlight? 

This week, we turn to F.T. Marinetti’s second manifesto, “Let’s Kill the Moonlight!”, (1909). Split into four sections, Marinetti begins with a defence of Futurism and a call to arms, before launching into a narrative, where the Mad, armed with cars and planes, wage war on Paralysis, Gout, and The Moon. 

We’ll also take a look at another manifesto, Marinetti’s, “We Abjure Our Symbolist Masters, The Past Lovers Of The Moon”, (from “Le Futurisme”, 1911) to better understand the Futurists’ break with the past, their ideal, Hybrid Human, and their disgust for the moon.

Let's Kill The Moonlight

This week, we look at the Manifesto of The Futurist Painters, the group’s first attempt at translating Marinetti’s passionate prose into a visual medium. Legend has it that it was written by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, and Luigi Russolo in a café in Milan over the course of a single day, with F.T. Marinetti swooping in at nightfall to spruce it up. 

This being a podcast we thought it essential to look at some paintings. If our florid descriptions are not enough for you the paintings are available in the links below, as is the text of the manifesto. 

The Manifesto
https://www.unknown.nu/futurism/painters.html

Previati Gaetano, “La Danza delle Ore”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artgate_Fondazione_Cariplo_-_Previati_Gaetano,_La_Danza_delle_Ore.jpg

Giovanni Segantini, “The Punishment of Lust”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punishment_of_Lust

Giovanni Segantini, “The Evil Mothers”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Evil_Mothers_by_Giovanni_Segantini.jpg

Medardo Rosso, “Bookmaker”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medardo_rosso,_bookmaker,_1902-03,_bronzo.jpg

Medardo Rosso, “Invalid in Hospital”
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/invalid-in-hospital-by-medardo-rosso-sculpture-in-patinated-news-photo/173458208

Carlo Carrà, “The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funeral_of_the_Anarchist_Galli

Giacomo Balla, “Speeding Automobile”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79343

Giacomo Balla, “Street Light”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78382

Giacomo Balla, “Dynamism of a Dog on a leash”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamism_of_a_Dog_on_a_Leash

Gino Severini, “Souvenirs de Voyage”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gino_Severini,_1911,_Souvenirs_de_Voyage,_oil_on_canvas,_47_x_75_cm,_private_collection.jpg

Gino Severini, “Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabrin”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79419

Luigi Russolo, “Profumo”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luigi_Russolo_-_Profumo_(1910).jpg

Luigi Russolo, “Solidity of Fog”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luigi_Russolo_solidity-of-fog-1912.jpg

Luigi Russolo, “Plastic Synthesis of Movements of a Woman”
https://arthistoryproject.com/artists/luigi-russolo/plastic-synthesis-of-movements-of-a-woman/

Umberto Boccioni, “The Laugh”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umberto_Boccioni_-_Laughter.jpg

Umberto Boccioni, “The Riot”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79278

Umberto Boccioni, “Three Women”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Women_by_Umberto_Boccioni,_1910.jpg

Umberto Boccioni, “The City Rises”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_Rises

Manifesto of The Futurist Painters

So far we’ve seen the theory behind a futurist aesthetic, but this week we look at Boccioni et al. try and make specific sense of what that would entail in Futurist Painting: A Technical Manifesto. We will cover Divisionism, Pointillism and other aspects of Impressionism to understand what makes a painting specifically Futurist while talking through examples by Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, among others as well as some paintings by non-Futurists, like Giovanni Segantini, who greatly influenced them.  

Also in this episode: the rejection of the critic, a whirling life of steel, and the call for a 10 year moratorium on the nude in painting.     

PS: We do not yet have a Patreon, enjoy some bonus content on us. 

The Manifesto: https://www.unknown.nu/futurism/techpaint.html

The Paintings: 

Previati Gaetano, “La Danza delle Ore”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artgate_Fondazione_Cariplo_-_Previati_Gaetano,_La_Danza_delle_Ore.jpg

Giovanni Segantini, “The Punishment of Lust”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punishment_of_Lust

Giovanni Segantini, “The Evil Mothers”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Evil_Mothers_by_Giovanni_Segantini.jpg

Medardo Rosso, “Bookmaker”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medardo_rosso,_bookmaker,_1902-03,_bronzo.jpg

Medardo Rosso, “Invalid in Hospital”
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/invalid-in-hospital-by-medardo-rosso-sculpture-in-patinated-news-photo/173458208

Carlo Carrà, “The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funeral_of_the_Anarchist_Galli

Giacomo Balla, “Speeding Automobile”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79343

Giacomo Balla, “Street Light”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78382

Giacomo Balla, “Dynamism of a Dog on a leash”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamism_of_a_Dog_on_a_Leash

Gino Severini, “Souvenirs de Voyage”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gino_Severini,_1911,_Souvenirs_de_Voyage,_oil_on_canvas,_47_x_75_cm,_private_collection.jpg

Gino Severini, “Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabrin”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79419

Luigi Russolo, “Profumo”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luigi_Russolo_-_Profumo_(1910).jpg

Luigi Russolo, “Solidity of Fog”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luigi_Russolo_solidity-of-fog-1912.jpg

Luigi Russolo, “Plastic Synthesis of Movements of a Woman”
https://arthistoryproject.com/artists/luigi-russolo/plastic-synthesis-of-movements-of-a-woman/

Umberto Boccioni, “The Laugh”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umberto_Boccioni_-_Laughter.jpg

Umberto Boccioni, “The Riot”
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79278

Umberto Boccioni, “Three Women”
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Women_by_Umberto_Boccioni,_1910.jpg

Umberto Boccioni, “The City Rises”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_Rises

Technical Manifesto Of The Futurist Painters

While we get the Patreon up and running enjoy some free bonus content. This week we look at Umberto Boccioni’s splendid triptych States of Mind (The Farewells, Those Who Go, Those Who Stay), Thomas reads some Rimbaud, and Ariel makes some puerile jokes. 

(Boccioni) States Of Mind I: The Farewells
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78648

(Boccioni) States Of Mind II: Those Who Go
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78653

(Boccioni) States Of Mind III: Those Who Stay
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78660

(Bonus) Boccioni's States of Mind Triptych

Venice has always been a dramatic setting for artistic expression, for the Futurists however it represented the decadent stagnation they so despised. This week we look at the Futurist manifesto “Against Passeist Venice”–sometimes translated as “Against Traditionalist Venice”– a screed against all those who love Venice for its past, its old palaces, and slow, easy going canals. But for all their declared hatred of Venice, the Futurists would keep going back year after year to host heated evenings (seratas) in the La Fenice theatre. In the end the city served as stunning a backdrop for their politicking and artistic expression as it has for centuries of artists and lovers. 

The text can be found in Futurism an Anthology. 

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Futurism

Against Traditionalist Venice

The futurist’s scorn for women is famously controversial. This week, to dig further into this facet of the movement, we look at Valentine de St Point’s response to F.T. Marinetti in her “The Manifesto Of The Futurist Woman.” St Point expands the Futurist provocation and leaves plenty of questions about the movement’s liberating potential as well as its fundamental shortcomings.

Manifesto of The Futurist Woman

[Includes a mention of sexual violence]. This week we look at the Futurist Manifesto of Lust proclaimed by Valentine de Saint-Point in Paris’ Salle Gaveau on the eve of war in 1913.  In it she will declare lust a force, the primal drive from which creative energies flow, and impel us to free it from the smothering effect of sentimentality. 

Her provocation is not only exciting and beautifully written, but it marks a significant addition to the futurist corpus and widens the breadth and theoretical subtlety of the project. 

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Referenced  in the episode:

 The Manifesto: https://www.unknown.nu/futurism/lust.html

Silvia Contarini: Valentine de Saint-Point a Futurist Woman? https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110422818-006/html

Tate Modern: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-16-summer-2009/action-feminine

Futurist Manifesto Of Lust

This week, we continue looking into Futurism’s conception of women as well as start to explore Futurist politics, namely through the issue of women’s suffrage. We start with Futurism And Woman by Margaret Wynne Nevinson (1910), a Futurist critic, and continue with Contempt For Woman by F.T. Marinetti (1911), later translated as Against Love And Parliamentarianism. Through these texts we see Marinetti’s position regarding parliamentarianism (he’s against it) and Nevinson’s short and witty characterisation of Futurism based on one evening at the Lyceum Club. 

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Futurism, Women, And Parliamentarianism

This week we have composer Aron Gyenge joining us to discuss the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Musicians. Published in 1911 by Francesco Balilla Pratella, the manifesto was an attempt to flesh out the radical intentions set forth in his previous Manifesto of Futurist Musicians. 

Pratella excoriates those that are still trapped by traditional narrative and formal constraints and outlines a brave new future for a music more akin to free verse than the sonnet.

Technical Manifesto Of Futurist Musicians

This week we continue our series on Fauvism with Henri Matisse’s “Notes of a Painter” published in La Grande Revue on the 25th of December 1908. Matisse was one of the 20th century’s most influential artists and his work remains a towering testament to the power of levity and beauty. Join us as we explore his pictorial essentialism and the tensions between nature and expression that he sought to resolve through his art.

Reliable links to Matisse’s works are difficult to find in the UK for copyright issues but we encourage you to seek them out in print.

  Our intro music is by Aron Gyenge, whom we greatly thank.
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Henri Matisse's Notes of a Painter

The 20th Century was the age of the Manifesto. No longer waiting to be retrospectively defined by critics and historians, writers like F.T.Marinetti, Tristan Tzara and Andre Breton took their identities, goals and methods into their own hands. They would decide what they are and how the world should be. Through manifestos, art and political movements would have a core set of documents that outlined their proposals, criticisms and practical solutions to problems they saw.

Yet, too few of us today are aware of the profound changes these movements and manifestos had. That’s where we come in. We’ll be selecting manifestos from the 20th century: examining their form and rhetoric, the ideas within them, offering judgments, and tracing history, as well as engaging with the art, music and writing these manifestos would inspire. 

We aim to provide a copy of the core works that we look at in the description of each episode, so you can follow us.

Hosted by Ariel de la Garza and Thomas Greengrass

Henri Matisse's Notes of a Painter

The Manifest Image

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