Thursday 10 December 2009

Time Capsule - Decisions decisions

I have been looking at Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism while researching what to do for my time capsule.


The two images are my favourite images I've found so far from each movement. Both of them are bold and colourful (although the example of futurism above isn't colourful, but I still like it)

I think I will do futurism so I am not the second person in the group doing constructivism and also because I don't know much about it and I'd like to learn a bit more.

From looking at the books on futurism it looks as though there are 6 key 'Futurists': Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, F.T. Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Antonio Saint'Elia.


Boccioni's The City Rises 1910
I initially thought this was a war scene, and that 'the city' was revolting but apparently its actually a busy scene showing everyone getting up for work, building new buildings, steering horses and going to factories.


The Revolt also by Boccioni IS actually about the people of the city rising up in protest. This was painted the year after, and is much more abstract, showing a 'red wedge' of red people who's dynamism and feeling of protest is shown penetrating the city by the bright red 'waves' that fill the picture.


The Street Light by Giacommo Balla was inspired by the new electric street lighting in Rome. Balla is depicting the way the controversial new lights outshone the moonlight, using chevrons of colour to illustrate the energy pouring out of the electric bulb.


Unique forms of Continuity in Space was one of Boccioni's later pieces. It is a bronze sculpture which shows the movement of a human with 'modelling of the atmosphere',  as he called it, around the figure. I like the way he has abstracted the human form to a point where it has no face obvious arms, but you can still tell that it is striding forward. I saw this in a gallery in London a few years ago and i remember liking it but I didn't really understand what it was meant to be, but I remember it being quite scary looking, like a futuristic robot.