The Futurist Movement Of Art

Andy Warhol being not simply a Pop artist, but an American artist who was known as the master of Pop Art, and about two of Warhol’s most famous paintings; Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup Cans. Andy Warhol was an artist and filmmaker, an initiator for the Pop Art movement in the 1960s. Warhol used mass production techniques to elevate art into the supposed unoriginality of the commercial culture of the United States. Warhol’s early drawings frequently recalls the Anglo-Saxon tradition of nonsense humor, a characteristically childlike exuberance, and the fact that Warhol was successfully earning a living in the advertising industry at the time was sufficient for many to dismiss his entire artistic output during this period as “commercial art”. Fifty years ago, Pop art captured the spirit of Warhol’s young art, but that basic structure has been (to most people) a revealing profitless movement for years. Pop art was a 1960s movement that focused on everyday objects, comic books and mediated images — now seems quaint and playful, but not Warhol. In the first part of Andy Warhol’s career he was an iconoclast, in the second, the artist as businessman. In 1960 Warhol’s graphic works underwent a fundamental change in terms of subject matter, accompanied at about the same time by a change in technique. Warhol’s graphic work covers areas not normally associated with the art of the twentieth century, and which might even be considered unique. In Andy Warhol’s paintings and prints of

Wassily Kandinsky has been part of my fascination and love for art for approximately ten years now. Beginning when I was a freshman in high school, and every year as part of our art classes, my instructor would do small units on art theory and highlight artists throughout those units, Kandinsky included. While my talents, in particular, are somewhat limited to what I can represent, Kandinsky was the first to break Western art’s most “important rule:” that art need to depict anything (Frank, 396). As the first to break away from art being representational, Kandinsky opened other avenues of expression, as well (Wassily-Kandinsky.org). Surrealism, the movement I am most fascinated by, is something I believe is a natural extension from art representing nothing, to art representing multiple things.

He explains how various disciplines – such as photography, film, and typography – were not “immune to the programme of Modernism”1. The author uses an example of such through a photographer called Aleksandr Rodchenko, who viewed photography as a chance to shift away from conventional painting through objective realism. He discusses the ‘belly-button’ viewpoint, and how this paved the way for objective realism in photography: “this viewpoint gave me an impression of its massiveness [the Eiffel Tower] and constructiveness.” . Ultimately, Rodchenko was advocating for an extension for the way in which photography defined reality. At this time, other artists used photography in purely abstract forms, for instance, experimentation in paintings. Pop art is also outlined in the book as a major reaction against the elitism of International Modernism in the 1950s and 1960s. Pop Art is distinguished as an extension of the Dadaism movement, through its socially concerned

A new world, A new era, a new art form, Futurism and Dada are the cornerstone of Avant-Garde art, celebrating a break from traditionalism, these new art forms in different ways show a complete disdain for classical art, With Futurism and Dada tradition is out, new is in. Marking the important features of Futurism and Dada are their key figureheads, such as Marcel Duchamp and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, among many others contributed to the artworks foundation, a foundation of such unique art that challenges the notion of tradition and what is means to be art.

At this decade most of the “Isms” were seen in the artistic culture. But following are the most prominent and new movement seen in the decade. Avant Garde, Surrealism, Russian Art, and Modernism.

Marinetti addressed the “death” of traditional art in his Futurist Manifesto of 1909 when he stated “Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed” (2001 21-2). Marinetti, among with artists of the Futurist, Vorticist and Constructivist movements of the 20th century, believed that mechanisation was fundamental to creating a new future where machines played a vital role in modern society. The traditional style of painting and sculpture — in accordance to Futurist principles — had no place in this new future.

Marinetti addressed the “death” of traditional art in his Futurist Manifesto of 1909 when he stated “Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed” (2001 21-2). Marinetti, among with artists of the Futurist, Vorticist and Constructivist movements of the 20th century, believed that mechanisation was fundamental to creating a new future where machines played a vital role in modern society. The traditional style of painting and sculpture — in accordance to Futurist principles — had no place in this new future. In this adapt-or-die situation, artists Umberto Boccioni and Jacob Epstein responded to the world of machines by incorporating techniques learned from their past

The Modern Art Era is a pretty large expanse of time. It ranges from the 1860’s to the 1960’s and presents itself in a variety of techniques and styles. I myself am a photographer so I thought it was fitting to focus on something I am interested in. I chose to research Imogen Cunningham and her contributions to the modern era as a female photographer. I mainly chose Imogen because a lot of her work reminded me of things that I want to attempt to create as well as things that I have photographed.

Marinetti addressed the “death” of traditional art in his Futurist Manifesto of 1909 when he stated “Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.” Marinetti, among with artists of the Futurist, Vorticist and Constructivist movements of the 20th century, believed that mechanisation was fundamental to creating a new future where machines played a vital role in modern society. The traditional style of painting and sculpture — in accordance to Futurist principles — had no place in this new future. In this

Futurism was founded in 1909 by the Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, originally as a literary movement but quickly expanded to other artistic disciplines. In that same year Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, was published in Le Figaro, a major french newspaper. By having the manifesto printed in such a prominent source of media this highlighted the urgency and desire for the movement to not remain

The Pop Art movement was an international phenomenon that began in the 1950’s in which artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol sought to initiate fresh thinking in art. The term Pop Art is credited to the British art critic Lawrence Alloway and is short for “popular art” which referred to the popular mass culture and familiar imagery of the contemporary urban environment. This movement was a comment and expansion on the then popular ideas of the Abstract Impressionism movement. Fred S. Kleiner says of pop artists,

Instead of just being expressed on canvas, it was also shown in sculpture and even collage. An example of futurism would be Boccioni's set of sculptures, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. In these sculptures, he tried to capture the modern world and what the futurists considered it's defining characteristic- speed. Color in these sculptures, and in futurist art in general, didn't play as big of a part as it did in fauvist and expressionist art. Instead, futurist artists used composition, ideas, and shape to express speed, technology, and even violence. They wanted their works to reflect the modern age and to stray from traditional artistic styles. Futurism was also political, they would spread their philosophy to the people which frequently caused trouble with their audiences. This was definitely not the case for fauvist and futurist art, which were both much less diverse in terms of expression to the

Art before the twentieth century was used to visually tell a story or represent an idea, but it was not until the twentieth century that artist’s began to break down art into the purist basic elements. Abstract art is a movement that does not incorporate an underlying message and instead allows the artist to work with form, color, and shape in a way that applauds its simple beauty. Abstraction in art forbids reality to be seen and instead the medium is used to create an artwork that is essentially nothing from this world. In return, the viewer is forced to fight their way through the artwork to try to find a meaning that is just not present (Greenberg 37). This allows the viewer to step back and instead and be drawn in by the extravagance that can be created by the use of only the basic art elements. This form of art was unconventional in the beginning but developed with movements like Dada and abstract expressionism which have influenced the American artistry in today’s age.

The beginning of 20th century was a time of drastic change. New developments were made in the arenas of the classical sciences, social science, psychology and philosophy - each challenging traditional thought. Industrialization and the introduction of many new, challenging concepts in the fields of politics as well as the development of new technologies gave artist more freedom to innovate and break the rules of traditional art. By using new materials, techniques and the new approach artists were pushing boundaries of what has previously been accepted art practice in order to invent radically new styles.

“Modern painting, breaking through old conversation, has released countless suggestions which are still waiting to be used by the practical world.”(Gropius) The birth of modernism and modern art goes back to the Industrial Revolution, a period that lasted from the 18th to the 19th century, in which rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation, and technology profoundly affected the social, economic, and cultural conditions of life in Western Europe, North America, and eventually the world. Before the 19th century, artists created art pieces for wealthy people and institution places like the church where they can create art works about storytelling of religious or mythological scenes . These arts were there to instruct the viewers.However, this changed when during the 19th century many artists began to create works that were about people, places, or ideas that interested them, and of which they had direct experience. With the popularization of the idea of a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams, symbolism, and personal iconography as avenues for the depiction of their subjective experiences.Challenging the notion that art must realistically depict the world, some artists experimented with the expressive use of color, non-traditional materials, and new techniques and mediums.