A lesson about Futurism and

visual movement

in art

2005 Pearson Publishing

Once upon a time there was a group of artists called the Futurists.

They started up as a formal group in 1909 in Italy. They had many interesting and strange ideas about the world and about art.

The main Futurists were Filippo Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini.

One of the most important Futurist ideas was that art should celebrate the power and energy of machines, since, in 1909, this stood for the progress of the human race towards an amazing future.

They came up with ways to solve the problem of showing this energy in paintings and sculptures, which of course generally don’t move at all. However, paintings and sculptures can show visual movement or visual energy.

This is the focus for this lesson.

It’s easy to think like a Futurist – especially if you can ride a bike. Energy is passed into a machine – speed – energy – danger!

So I got on my bike and pedalled as fast as I could, to experience exactly what this is like ...

This idea came from seeing Umberto Boccioni’s painting, ‘The Dynamism of a Cyclist’.

This is my starting point – the engine of my bike – where the

energy of my body is changed into speed and movement.

I’ve used a software filter to find the edges of the picture.

The next step is a tracing from a printout of the last slide – a simple drawing to create a starting point for my

image.

Now my drawing includes marks to show energy and movement. I’ve drawn my foot in too –

to recreate the idea of the bicycle moving.

I’ve added colour to enhance the impression of movement and energy.

The hot colours suit the idea of energy burning, and I’ve also

started to emphasise key shapes to develop the composition.

I felt that there was too much red, so I started to introduce some blues and greens to try to balance

the colour in a more interesting way.

Now I’m thinking that the cool blues are the energy of my body,

and the hot reds and yellows are the energy of the machine.

It’s becoming about a change of energy, from me to the bicycle.

I’ve added some brush strokes to introduce the feeling of radiating energy. This patterning leads the eyes of a

viewer in the direction of the marks and shapes. The Futurists

used this technique in many of their paintings.

I’ve really worked hard to develop the balance of the shapes, textures and colour, so that the movement and

energy of my furious pedalling is recreated!

A key principle of art is that the ordinary appearance of the world is changed by artists, to give an impression of how the world feels – not simply what it looks like.

The Futurists definitely did this, and I’ve tried to do this too.

I only need to do some final adjustments now.

Finished!

You could use this approach to work with many different subjects and themes which involve energy and movement. For example:• Sport• Dance• Different forms of transport• Animals• The human body

Make sure you use ideas that are real and interesting for you. Start with your own drawings and/or photographs whenever you can. Have a good look at the art of the Futurists too; they are well represented on the Internet and easy to find.

Let’s see that again without the captions.

Just watch how the picture develops.

Useful Web sites:

www.futurism.org.uk

www.unknown.nu/futurism

Thank you for following this lesson.

Now it’s time for you to try out some of these ideas!