Boccioni's Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space example essay topic

Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (figure 1) was created in Italy at the height of Futurism. Futurism was the foundation for Boccioni and his counterparts to work; it was derived from Marinetti's manifesto. This manifesto of 1909 characterised Futurism's glorification of technology and the speed associated with it. Yet Marinetti's ideas were not invented without influence. The industrialisation of Europe, as well as French movements in art and literature stimulated Marinetti's ideas.

Marinetti: The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism Marinetti was a young poet in his twenties at the turn-of-the-century. He was frustrated with the lack of progress in Italy compared to the rest of Europe therefore, in 1909, to prepare Italy for the great adventure of modern times he issued The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism. He attacked the old traditions of culture promoting the modern: "We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness... Courage, audacity and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry... We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed... we will glorify war - the world's only hygiene... We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind...

". (Apollonio, 1972, pp. 21-22). The document was published in Paris, written in French to spread the ideas throughout Europe. Marinetti was determined to reach a mass audience and unlike other modern movements an idea was created rather than a style. He wanted his concept to be expressed in every means possible - painting, sculpture, music, architecture and poetry to reform Italy's traditional culture beyond recognition. Marinetti's Futurism sprung from the modernity and urban life experienced throughout Europe.

The Industrialization in Europe had given the machine environmental status yet Italy, with a lack of raw materials, had been left behind. The industrial advances that did occur appeared intrusive against Italian life, yet due to Italy's isolation from the Industrial revolution it allowed the machine to be romanticized. By 1900 the society, hundreds of years old, was changing daily. Marinetti who at the time was Paris welcomed this. The French literary circles surrounding him affected his future ideas. They were the origin of his devotion to aggression; the group also had a love of violence and belief in the virtue of destruction.

Tail hade once wrote, after violence sweep the capital, "What do the victims matter, if the gesture be beautiful" (Tisdall, 1996, p. 18). Another writer that influenced Marinetti was Georges Sorel. Sorel believed that class struggle contributed to the health of society and that only violence could produce the freedom of self-improvement. The Philosopher Henri Bergson introduced to ideas of dynamism and intuition which were adopted by the Artists of Futurism to portray Marinetti's ideas visually.

The impact of modern literature as a foundation of Futurism was prominent yet the Futurists would rather acknowledge Italian painters. The French art movements corresponding with futurism were Fauvism and Cubism. Many links have been made between the visual components of Futurism and the French. Apollinaire suggested, "Futurism, in my opinion is an Italian imitation of the two schools of French painting... fauvism and cubism" (Perloff, 1986, p. 52).

Futurism was a product of industrialisation and urbanisation in the north of Italy but Marinetti's French experiences brought in an international dimension. Boccioni The most prominent artists that responded to Marinetti's call were Carlo Carr a, Luigi Russo lo, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni. Boccioni was the most articulate and gifted, as a painter and sculptor, of the group (Honour, & Fleming, 1999). Boccioni was ambitious in his hopes for Futurism and was responsible for manifestos on sculpture and painting between 1910 and 1914. He aimed to outline a way to transform Futurism from concept to visual expression. Initially Boccioni's art concentrated on painting taking ideas from his Italian predecessor Previati.

They became similar stylistically, with Boccioni using divisionism to a large extent in his work. The other Futurists also developed a taste for divisionism due to its heightened colour and rejection of the restriction of outlines, this reflected the idea of Bergson: .".. any division of matter into independent bodies with determined outlines is artificial" (Tisdall, 1996, p. 32). Boccioni unlike his colleagues also enjoyed the symbolism in Previati's work. In Boccioni's work The City Rises (figure 2) he attempted to fuse labour, colour and movement. His use of the urban cityscape was a common way to show the Futurist interest in urbanisation. Previati's influence was still present in Boccioni's work with a great horse in the foreground representing the physical effort and power of industrialized labour (Tisdall, 1996).

The theme of riots and confrontation ran strong in Boccioni's work until after this work when he turned away form social scenes to sculpture. From 1911 to 1914 Boccioni became preoccupied with sculpture. He felt that sculpture was even more backward thinking than art due to its devotion to the nude: .".. an art that must that all the clothes off a man or women in order to provide any emotive effect is a dead art" (Tisdall, 1996, p. 74). In his writing The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture he expresses his ideals. He felt he had found a way to renovate sculpture. He wanted to emphasis intuition, as Bergson expressed and depict matter in terms of movement and duration.

This approach was to replace the common method of breaking up the environment into individual elements. He aimed to take the object he wished to create and begin with its central core, linking the external plasticity with the internal. Dynamism was the essence: "Dynamism is the lyrical conception of forms, interpreted in the infinite manifestations of the relativity between absolute motion and relative motion, between the environment and the object which come together to form the appearance of a whole... ". (Apollonio, 1973, p. 92).

Despite Boccioni's obvious contrast with Cubism his sculpture Antigrazioso (Figure 4) was accused of plagiarism because of its likeness to Picasso's Head (Figure 3). Futurism borrowed terms from Cubism such as 'broken forms' which added to the confusion. To clear himself of the comparison he wrote. ".. the Futurists were absolutely opposed to cubist art for they [the Cubists] continue to paint objects motionless, frozen and all the static aspects of nature... ".

(Perloff, 1986, p. 52). To Boccioni the addition of dynamism into sculpture brought to art a way to express the age of speed and simultaneity. In his years of sculpture Boccioni created a series of striding figures, each one progressing further toward his aims. His ultimate figure was Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (figure 1) in 1913. The figure is stripped of environmental burdens, and surface details to. ".. reveal a form in which movement synthesised, as opposed to sequential depiction of movement... ".

(Tisdall, 1996, p. 80). The muscles are distorted as a result of movement, as the combination of surfaces dissolve and reform constantly (Honour, & Fleming, 1999). The work achieved Boccioni's ultimate goal. "It realises pure plastic rhythm; not the construction of the body, but the construction of the action of the body" (Honour, & Fleming, 1999, p. 795). The scale of the work also adds to the achievement for Boccioni. The work is half-life size and made of bronze.

The medium relates to the industrialisation of the period yet at the same time is a traditional medium which Boccioni disliked. He achieves another of his goals with the work. As the form traverses through space, the environment transforms it and becomes part of the form. The previous positions of the figure are left visible, trailing behind making the viewer aware of the relationship between body and environment. After Boccioni completed Unique Forms of Continuity in Space he briefly returned to painting, yet away from futurism before his death in World War One. Conclusion Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space represents the pinnacle of Futurism.

The movement, inspired by all the characteristics of modernity, aimed to establish a new Italian society rejecting all that contrasted with the new. Marinetti was the forerunner of the period defining the glorification of war, the machine, and above all speed, in his manifesto. Many artists embraced the new concepts and set about to create a way to visualise the ideas. Boccioni, initially using painting, took a leading role in defining Futurism as a style. He moved to sculpture and in 1913 met the end of Futurism with his work Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. This work incorporated the principles of urbanisation and the machine working in terms of speed.

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is the direct result of modernity.