Art, literature & culture

Rise of Futurism

1909

Futurism was an Italian artistic and literary movement launched by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose Futurist Manifesto was printed on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro in 1909. It glorified speed, machines, technology and the energy of modern cities, and rejected the past and its museums. Painters such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra and Gino Severini tried to express movement and dynamic force by showing objects in several positions at once. The movement also included music, architecture and theatre. Its celebration of violence and war, and Marinetti's later support of Italian Fascism, made it controversial, and a separate Russian Futurism developed independently.

Open on the timeline

Before and after

More in Art, literature & culture

The era

This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.