Russian Futurism
Russian
Russian Futurism began roughly in the early 1910s; in 1912, a year after Ego-Futurism began, the literary group "Hylea"—also spelt "Guilée"[2] and "Gylea"—issued the manifesto A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. The 1912 movement was originally called Cubo-Futurism, but this term is now used to refer to the style of art produced. Russian Futurism ended shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which former Russian Futurists either left the country, or participated in the new art movements.
Notable Russian Futurists included Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, David Burliuk, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Velimir Khlebnikov.
Style
The Manifesto celebrated the "beauty of speed" and the machine as the new aesthetic.[1] Marinetti explained the "beauty of speed" as "a roaring automobile is more beautiful than the Winged Victory" further asserting the movement towards the future. Artforms were greatly affected by the Russian Futurism movement within Russia, with its influences being seen in cinema, literature, typography, politics, and propaganda. The Russian Futuristic movement saw its demise in the early 1920s.
Name
Initially the term "futurism" was problematic, because it reminded them too much of their rivals in Italy; however, in 1911, the Ego-futurist group began. This was the first group of Russian futurism to call themselves "futurist"; shortly afterwards, many other futurists followed in using the term too.
Origins
The most important group of Russian Futurism may be said to have been born in December 1912, when the
In addition to the forenamed authors, the group included artists Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Kazimir Malevich, and Olga Rozanova.[5]
Although Hylaea is generally considered to be the most influential group of Russian Futurism, other groups were formed in St. Petersburg (
Modernity
Like their Italian counterparts, the Russian Futurists were fascinated with the dynamism, speed, and restlessness of modern machines and urban life. They purposely sought to arouse controversy and to gain publicity by repudiating the static art of the past. The likes of
Cinema
Russian Futurist cinema refers to the futurist movement in Soviet cinema. Russian Futurist cinema was deeply influenced by the
Literature and typography
In contrast to Marinetti's circle, Russian Futurism was primarily a literary rather than a plastic philosophy. Although many poets (Mayakovsky, Burlyuk) dabbled with painting, their interests were primarily literary. However, such well-established artists as
Members of Hylaea elaborated the doctrine of Cubo-Futurism and assumed the name of budetlyane (from the Russian word budet 'will be'). They found significance in the shape of letters, in the arrangement of text around the page, in the details of typography. They considered that there is no substantial difference between words and material things, hence the poet should arrange words in his poems like the artist arranges colors and lines on his canvas. Grammar, syntax, and logic were often discarded; many neologisms and profane words were introduced; onomatopoeia was declared a universal texture of verse. Khlebnikov, in particular, developed "an incoherent and anarchic blend of words stripped of their meaning and used for their sound alone",[10] known as zaum.
Politics
With all this emphasis on formal experimentation, some Futurists were not indifferent to politics. In particular, Mayakovsky's poems, with their lyrical sensibility, appealed to a broad range of readers. He vehemently opposed the meaningless slaughter of
The Bolshevik Agit-trains
War correspondent Arthur Ransome and five other foreigners were taken to see two of the Bolshevik propaganda trains in 1919 by their organiser, Burov. The organiser first showed them the "Lenin",[12] which had been painted a year and a half ago
when, as fading hoardings in the streets of Moscow still testify, revolutionary art was dominated by the Futurist movement. Every carriage is decorated with most striking but not very comprehensible pictures in the brightest colours, and the proletariat was called upon to enjoy what the pre-revolutionary artistic public had for the most part failed to understand. Its pictures are 'art for arts sake', and can not have done more than astonish, and perhaps terrify, the peasants and the workmen of the country towns who had the luck to see them.
The "Red Cossack"[12] was quite different. As Burov put it with deep satisfaction, "At first we were in the artists' hands, and now the artists are in our hands". Initially the artists were so revolutionary that at one point Burov had delivered the Department of Proletarian Culture some Futurists "bound hand and foot", but now "the artists had been brought under proper control".[13]
The other three trains were the "Sverdlov", the "October Revolution", and the "Red East".
Demise
After the
See also
References and sources
- References
- ^ ISBN 0-8014-9492-3.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Severini, Gino. The Life of a Painter. Princeton. pp. 294–7.
- ^ Victor Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature (Yale University Press, 1990), s.v. "Hylaea", p. 197.
- ^ "Selected Poems with Postscript, 1907–1914". World Digital Library. 1914. Archived from the original on 28 November 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
- ^ Gurianova, Nina "Game in Hell, Hard Work in Heaven: Deconstructing the Canon in Russian Futurist Books" The Russian avant-garde book, 1910-1934 Ed. Margit Rowell and Deborah Wye. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2002.
- ^ a b c d "Cubo-Futurism | art movement". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- ^ "David Davidovich Burlyuk | Russian poet, painter, critic, and publisher". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- ^ "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste 1917". Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
- )
- ^ "Futurism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
- ^ Jangfeldt, Bengt (1976). Majakovskij and Futurism 1917-21 (PDF). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
- ^ a b Jonathan Smele, The "Russian" Civil Wars, 1916–1926: Ten Years that Shook the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015; pg. 248.
- ISBN 978-0-571-26907-5.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ OCLC 216203127.
- Sources
- Markov, Vladimir (1968) Russian Futurism. University of California Press.
- Petrova, Ye (2000) Russkiy futurizm ('Russian Futurism'). SPb.
- V. N. Terekhina, A. P. Zimenkov (1999) Russkiy futurizm. Teoriya. Praktika. Kritika. Vospominaniya. ('Russian Futurism. Theory. Practice. Criticism. Memoir.'). Nasledie: Moscow.
External links
- "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste", Russian Futurist manifesto