Disentangling the cultural artistic and political strands of futurist legacy is tricky. He joined mussolini in his rump fascist republic at salò and he died in northern italy in december 1944. In the beginning the highly combustible mood that underlies this art could be mistaken for a revolutionary feeling and in fact it reflects a revolutionary trend insofar and only insofar as it rejects the.
Italian futurism is transformed into art in the service of fascist reaction and mussolini s corporate state. With all the hoopla it was easy to overlook the disturbing fact that italy s most famous art movement of modern times was intimately involved with fascism and indeed that marinetti futurism s leading exponent had helped mussolini found the movement in 1919. It is a perspective on art that does not easily vanish and that may yet gain.
Is an issue much larger than just futurism. Mussolini never liked art much especially in relation to politics. Mussolini would also refuse to make futurism the official state approved art of italy these actions seem to contrast marinetti s 1923 profession of his allegiance to the fascist regime in the manifesto to the fascist government his 1929 appointment in the academia d italia by mussolini as well as the dictator s boycotting the.
Its key figures were the italians filippo tommaso marinetti umberto boccioni carlo carrà fortunato depero gino severini giacomo balla and luigi russolo. It emphasised speed technology youth violence and objects such as the car the airplane and the industrial city. Futurismo was an artistic and social movement that originated in italy in the early 20th century.
Mussolini s was the one that treated cultural expression most. As cacophonous as it might sound it is one of the cardinal texts of futurism. However it remained highly influential for subsequent 20th century art movements like dada surrealism and in terms of design art deco.
After the defeat of mussolini and marinetti s death in 1944 futurism as a formal movement was dead. While second futurism was dismissed for decades after the fall of fascism by scholars unwilling to write about the propagandistic art of the 1920s and 1930s that supported mussolini s regime the futurists did continue to conjure up exciting new ideas.
