See the Centre Pompidou notice: Futurism in Paris - An Explosive Avant-garde

FUTURISM IN PARIS (exhibition) - Encyclopædia Universalis

My article:

In Paris, the Centre Pompidou presents, from October 15, 2008 to January 26, 2009, an exhibition devoted to "Futurism in Paris", significantly subtitled (after Larionov) "an explosive avant-garde", which will then travel to Rome and then to London (Tate Modern). Its objective is to celebrate the centenary of this first avant-garde movement of the 20th century which made itself known, on the literary level, by F. T. Marinetti's manifesto, launched in Paris in Le Figaro on February 20, 1909. It therefore proposes the quasi-complete reconstruction of the first futurist exhibition in the capital, at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune, in February 1912. Its promoter, Félix Fénéon, could do no less than announce it with great fanfare of neon, and it was to circulate in London, Berlin and Brussels. The plastic quality of the works presented, the novelty of theoretical positions, the major contribution of the movement to the rise of avant-gardes are now indisputable. The futurists used the resources of provocation and multimedia, exalting the modern world, urban civilization, machines and speed. They aspired to bring art and life closer together, claiming a total art. However, the purpose remains ambiguous, since it intends to reassess the place and status of "first" futurism, as it presented itself in Paris; at the same time as it evokes the Parisian reaction to this nationalist movement. And one is not surprised by the hostile reactions it arouses.

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The approach is nevertheless intended to be didactic and dialectical: — thesis: new scientific theories penetrate the artistic world, both pointillism and cubism; — antithesis: the futurists explode painting both by colors and themes; — synthesis: resolution of opposites by the Golden Section and Orphism (Apollinaire) which groups Delaunay, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, whose paintings transported to the Armory Show in New York (1913) will, in return, irradiate the European avant-garde. From this synthesis participate the works of Russian cubofuturists and those of English vorticists, dialoguing with the Italians.

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The controversy, aroused with a futurist sense of provocation by the exhibition curator, Didier Ottinger, did not fail to break out immediately. Did he not claim that cubism represented academicism, tradition versus futurism, at the very moment when he was asking for a reexamination devoid of any passion? However, by reducing the exhibition to painting alone (or almost, insofar as books appear in a static manner), he was far from presenting the totality that the futurists wanted to embrace. His categories belonged to an obsolete division. Above all, he was returning to old moons opposing cubism and futurism. The absence of Germany and Poland was also emphasized, and finally the whole was reproached for being wisely ordered, far from the announced explosion. More radically, relying essentially on the movement's manifestos, others explained that futurism had no interest. In France, the artists who had not paid any attention to it could therefore not have suffered its influence. Similarly in Russia, where cubofuturism had not waited for Marinetti's visit, moreover very badly received, to advance in the artistic and literary field. It is true that the Parisian reception was more than reserved: from Gide and Claudel to the various artistic groups, all mocked Marinetti's boastfulness. As for the European avant-garde (Dada, surrealism), it quickly became hostile to it. In such a context, even Apollinaire's rallying (lyrical and scatological) remained suspect.

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What lessons can be drawn from such an exhibition?

On the one hand, that the works shown indeed deserve to be reconsidered. One is dazzled by this extraordinary profusion in such a brief period: The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (Carlo Carrà, 1910-1911), The Revolt (Luigi Russolo, 1911), The Laughter (Umberto Boccioni, 1911), The Pan-Pan Dance at Monico (Gino Severini, 1910, replica of 1959). The premature disappearance of Boccioni and Sant'Elia (for architecture) was detrimental to the futurist movement and to art in general. On the other hand, that the futurist proposals in various aesthetic branches were often revolutionary. One thinks of sculpture, typography, photography, music and the art of sounds (Russolo, 1913), dance (V. de Saint-Point, 1914), and especially cinema and theater where the futurist synthesis explodes. More than a total art, it was indeed a question of embracing the totality of art. And even more so with the staging of demonstrations... Finally, that futurism effectively contributed to bringing art closer to life, through its themes, its own dynamics, and the contact it established with a very diverse, even popular, public. Even if, prudently, it only shows the first period of futurism, before the First World War, this retrospective requires historical lighting. Regarding the movement's relations with fascism, it is now agreed to distinguish two periods, the first of which, even if it is bellicose, corresponds to a claim of independence and national unity. Can we go further by claiming, as some do, that futurism contained fascism in germ? This would be committing a sin of anachronism, especially since some futurists were then hunting on the lands of anarcho-syndicalism and anarchy. It is clear that through its faith in the future, futurism invented a new relationship of man to the modern world, and prefigured many avant-gardes.

Henri BÉHAR

Bibliography

Futurism in Paris, an Explosive Avant-garde, under the direction of Didier Ottinger, exhibition catalog, Centre Pompidou, 2008, 360 p. Dachy, Marc, "A Ridiculous Avant-garde", Critique, n° 404, January 1981. Lista, Giovanni, Futurism: manifestos, documents, proclamations, L'Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 1973. Sola Agnès, Russian Futurism, Paris, P. U. F., 1988.

See on this site: Tristan Tzara, forerunner of futurism, Futurismi