The end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century is the time of an active search for new forms in art, free from the template-detailed transmission of reality. This search and revolutionary fermentation in the minds of many representatives of European youth led to the emergence of new artistic and social movements. The myth was cultivated that art is obliged to turn (and certainly will turn) the world. One of the first signs was futurism. What is futurism? Literally futurum is the "future".
The founder of the movement is considered the Milanese poet F. Marinetti, the most prominent representatives in the painting are W. Boccioni, D. Balla, D. Severini. The history of futurism begins in the year nineteen nine: Marinetti published the first manifesto in the French journal Figaro, in which he called for throwing all previous
cultural values into the dustbin of history and forming the type of person of the future based on the latest technological achievements. Artists soon published their manifesto too. Later there were many manifestos, and all of them called for the abandonment of the past in the name of moving forward.
Unfortunately, futurism was not limited to art: it was thoroughly politicized, moreover, it was sharp and radical. This led him to an ideological collapse: some members of the movement distanced themselves from the group, while others in the eighteenth year created their own political party, which soon fell under the banner of Mussolini.
Futurism in art is broken lines, sharp color contrasts, pronounced imbalances, incomplete shapes, the presence of urban and technical motives. If the forerunners of the avant-garde, the Impressionists, were at the forefront of the search for a new form, now the form is fading into the background, any canons are rejected, only the artist’s attitude is important. It should be said that not only futurism was distinguished by this, that such an attitude to creativity is also characteristic of other avant-garde movements: cubism, abstractionism, expressionism, surrealism, Dadaism. The philosophy of the avant-garde is aimed at creative individualization of the personality, at opposing its depersonalized being, including mass culture. At the same time, the ideological filling of the currents is different: if futurism, in fact, appeals to violence, then expressionism (anti-fascist Pablo Picasso and others), on the contrary, expresses protest against violence that has swept the world through torn and broken lines.
In Russia, this genre is best established in the field of literature, has won the hearts of many poets of the Silver Age, has generated a torn style of versification, an overabundance of combinations and symbols in the texts, sometimes devoid of any meaning. The main pillar of Russian futurism is considered Khlebnikov. Pasternak, Mandelstam have the corresponding motives, even in the later texts of Yesenin there is futurism. What is, for example, "Black Man"? The style is obviously not classic.
One of the most consistent futurists was Mayakovsky. “Cloud in pants” is a masterpiece of the genre both in form and in spirit, and the poet remained faithful to his chopped style until the end of his life.
Futurists enthusiastically accepted the October Revolution. But this feeling was not mutual, because at the head of the proletarian movement were people with enormous cultural baggage. In particular, Lenin, in his speech to the Komsomol members at the Third Congress, emphasized the enormous importance of cultural heritage and mentioned about futurism, which he did not understand such art .
Futurism as an art movement lasted only a couple of decades. But his spirit was preserved. Arising in the fifties under the influence of science fiction literature and still popular in architecture and design, the hi-tech style is essentially the same futurism, only in a new round. He is deprived of political ambitions and radicalism in general, but inherited from its futurism its positive component: a look into the future and faith in progress, in the ultimate triumph of reason over conservatism.