The Italian avant-garde

Inspired by the development of Cubism, the Futurist movement was founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, along with painters Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra`, and Gino Severini. The school, which celebrated technology and the mechanical era, was comprised of painters, sculptors, designers, architects, and writers. Motion and machines were two main themes of this movement, which attacked the bastions of establishment and sparked controversy by its glorification of war and support of Fascism. Experimenting with movement, and speed, and abstract light and color, the Futurists developed approaches and techniques that were revolutionary at the time, and in retrospect one can see that the Futurists influenced other avant-garde art movements, most notably Russian Constructivism.

Artists featured: Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Carlo Carra`, Tullio Crali, Fortunato Depero, Gerardo Dottori, Leonardo Dudreville, Virgilio Marchi, F.T. Marinetti, Enrico Prampolini, Luigi Russolo, Antonio Sant"Elia, Gino Severini, Mario Sironi, Ardengo Soffici

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre Series features:

* a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period
* a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations



About the author:
Sylvia Martin received her PhD in art history at the University of Cologne, trained at Kunstmuseum Du"sseldorf, and worked as curator and academic collaborator at Kunstmuseum as well as at Kunst Palast Museum in Du"sseldorf. She currently works as freelance curator in Munich.