Futurism
Velocity-celebrating art movement
Futurism was an early 20th-century Italian art movement that celebrated speed, technology, youth, and modernity while rejecting tradition.
Founded by Marinetti in 1909, it influenced painting, sculpture, literature, and music with dynamic forms suggesting motion and mechanical power.
The movement's embrace of violence and nationalism later aligned some Futurists with fascism. (Lowercase futurism is a general orientation toward the future.)
Published statement of principles
- dynamismActive, energetic quality
- simultaneityState of coexisting temporally
- ItalianOf or from Rome's country
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
velocity · machine · modernity · industrialization · typography · provocation · Vorticism
Movement toward improvement
- technologyApplied scientific methods
- speedRate of motion
- youthState of being immature
- violenceHarmful physical force
war · nationalism · revolution · rupture · modernity · urbanism · mechanization · glorification
Active, energetic quality
- motionChange in position
- speedRate of motion
- machineryCollective mechanical equipment
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
collage · sculpture · assemblage · geometric · fragmentation · kinetic · bronze · canvas
Poetry without fixed structure
- manifestosPublic declarations of principles
- typographyArranging letters for display
- onomatopoeiaSound-imitating word formation
- experimentalTesting new methods
Unwanted auditory disturbance
- cacophonyHarsh, clashing sounds
- dissonanceLack of harmony
- industrialOf factories and production
- mechanicalOperated by machinery
sirens · percussion · experimental · sonic · noise music
manifesto
Published statement of principles
- dynamismActive, energetic quality
- simultaneityState of coexisting temporally
- ItalianOf or from Rome's country
avant-garde · velocity · machine · modernity · industrialization · typography · provocation · Vorticism
progress
Movement toward improvement
- technologyApplied scientific methods
- speedRate of motion
- youthState of being immature
violence · war · nationalism · revolution · rupture · modernity · urbanism · mechanization · glorification · optimism
dynamism
Active, energetic quality
abstraction · collage · sculpture · assemblage · geometric · fragmentation · kinetic · bronze · canvas · multimedia
free verse
Poetry without fixed structure
- manifestosPublic declarations of principles
- typographyArranging letters for display
- onomatopoeiaSound-imitating word formation
experimental · sound poetry · declamation · simultaneity · provocation
noise
Unwanted auditory disturbance
- cacophonyHarsh, clashing sounds
- dissonanceLack of harmony
- industrialOf factories and production
mechanical · sirens · percussion · experimental · sonic · noise music
- artfine art, Renaissance, painters, masterpieces, paint
- paintingoil painting, watercolor, acrylic paint, oils, oil paints
- architecture stylesart deco, Art Nouveau, minimalism, modernism, Modernism
- art historyart history, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, modern art
- art termspainting, sculpture, drawing, portrait, landscape
- Design HistoryArt Nouveau, Bauhaus, mid-century modern, Modernism, Postmodernism
Futurismnostalgia
Longing for the past
traditionalism · antiquarianism · primitivism · archaism · historicism
FuturismLuddism
Opposition to new technology
technophobia · anti-modernism · pastoralism · primitivism · agrarianism
- futuristic designForward-looking visual style
- futuristic cityImagined advanced urban center
- futuristic societyEnvisioned advanced civilization
- futuristic technologyImagined advanced innovations
- futuristic visionConception of tomorrow's world
- retro futurismNostalgic future aesthetics