By the end of the first decade of the present century, a wave of important scientific and technological advances had began to alter man's conception both of the universe and of himself in ways that would fundamentally shape the future of Western society. Einstein's theory of relatively toppled the accepted model of stable matter inhabiting fixed space over constant time. He revealed that rather than disparate entities, matter and energy are manifestations of a larger, dynamic whole, as also are space and time, with the character of each being determined by relative points of view. Similarly, Bergson held that time should be understood not as it had been in the nineteenth century, but is, as a sequence of episodes, but as a continuous dimension of consciousness, the essence of which is change.
The discovery of such phenomena as radiation and X rays indicated that the atom is not the smallest particle of matter and that human perception provided only a partial link with reality. Nineteenth century positivism was in need of review-evidently the world was more subtle and complex than had previously been imagined.
The environment was undergoing changes at the hands of technology and industry as dramatic as those affecting man's epistemology. Suddenly, the nights were ablaze with electric lights, and voices were carried across vast distances by telephone wires. Automobiles whizzed along city streets, subways coursed underground, and planes soared overhead. Interest in locomotion led photographers to invent systems for recapturing the illusion of movement, and movie houses immediately sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic. The modern age had begun, and its muse was speed.
In the arts, the priests of the new age were the Futurists. Initially a literary movement, Futurism was founded by the Italian poet and novelist Filippo Tomasso Marinetti (1876-1944). In his "Futurist Manifesto" (February 20, 1909) he declared, "The world's splendor has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car…is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace." Extolling war, revolution, and industry, and condemning museums, libraries, and academies of every kind, the Futurist program would soon embrace every facet of life, from the visual arts to music, theater, cinema, choreography, politics--even cooking, clothing, and sexuality. The pioneers of the new movement announced, "For the new conditions of life, the Futurists intend to discover a new means of expression."
A young painter, Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), had for some time been developing ideas sympathetic to Marinetti's. In 1907 the artist wrote in his Padua diary, "Yesterday I was tired of the big city, today I desire it with all my heart… I feel I want to paint what is now, the fruit of our industrial times… The whole storehouse of modern sentimentalism has bored me… While scientific analyses make us see the universe marvelously, art and artists seem to me to be in conflict with science today."
Young, Violent, Headstrong
In January 1910, Boccioni met Marinetti at the poet's Milan residence. Together with several other Italian artists, including Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), Carlo Carra (1881-1966), Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), and Gino Severini (1883-1966), they drafted the "Manifesto of the Futurist Painters" (February 11, 1910), a document that openly declared war on the
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