Rijksmuseum Twenthe - Het kunstmuseum van Enschede

Marinetti and Futurism: a manifesto for a new world

On February 20, 1909, the Italian poet F.T. Marinetti declares a new artistic era with his futuristic manifesto in the French newspaper Le Figaro. In the manifesto he brings an ode to speed, the future, aggressiveness and activism, and he resolutely rejects the past. These idealistic principles appeal to many young artists and intellectuals, and he quickly gathers a group of young futurists around him. In the exhibition Marinetti and Futurism, Rijksmuseum Twenthe follows the artistic development of Futurism through its charismatic leader Marinetti. On view from 25 September 2022 to 19 February 2023.

Much more than today, art and politics were linked in those early decades of the 20th century. They attracted and repelled each other. That was in Germany, in Russia and also in Italy. In the ideology of the avant-garde we recognize an optimistic and wishful thinking, in which artists dreamed of a new world. Today, for many, Futurism is inextricably linked with Fascism. Marinetti is seen as a follower of Mussolini, as an ultra-fascist. But looking back on his life, we see the story of a man who vacillates between his ideals and reality. In order to keep his beloved futuristic movement alive, he navigates between Fascism and his own revolutionary ideals. Sometimes outspoken pro or con, but often pragmatically looking for the right path to his dreamed new world, which in reality turned out to be much more complex than imagined.


Giacomo Balla, Gunshot on Sunday, 1918, oil on canvas, Banca D'Italia Roma


Contradictions

The political circumstances meant that Futurism had to constantly reinvent itself, with all the artistic consequences that it entailed. Until his death, he stimulated cultural production and promoted Modernism as a driving force for social renewal. Cultural renewal in the service of a general, nationalistic, revolutionary renewal of Italy as a modern nation. This is what makes the life of Marinetti and the avant-gardist Futurism so complex, sometimes diffuse and often paradoxical.


Evolution 

Using works by the 'first generation' of futurists: Gino Severini, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, as well as the works of later futurists such as Roberto Marcello Baldessari, Fortunato Depero, Tato and Benedetta, Rijksmuseum Twenthe shows the evolution of Italian Futurism. Supplemented with texts and documentation, the exhibition shows Futurism as a manifesto for a new world.


Catalogue

For the exhibition Marinetti and Futurism: Manifesto for a New World, Rijksmuseum Twenthe has composed a richly illustrated publication that elaborates on the artistic and social developments in Italy from 1909 to the end of the Second World War. The book is published by Waanders Uitgeverij and is available for €21,95

Futurists in Paris (from left to right: Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carrà, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini), 1912. 


The exhibition Marinetti and Futurism, a manifesto for a new world has been made possible with financial support from Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Amsterdam, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Province of Overijssel, the Municipality of Enschede, the Business-club of Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Friends of Rijksmuseum Twenthe and the GJ van Heek Junior Fund.


Exhibition under the curatorship of Rijksmuseum Twenthe and organized by StArt