What is Futurism?
Futurism is an avant-garde art and social movement that originated in Italy. Several manifestos were created in the wake of futurist philosophy and the most important of them was the Manifesto of Futurism, published by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. The attitude towards the past that the Futurists had was based on an uncompromising rejection of tradition. On the other side, Futurists were glorifying the cult of youth, industrialization, speed, technology, and modernization. Futurists were often emphasizing the violent component of the struggle for cultural and wider social change. Futurism developed in literature as well as in painting, sculpture, architecture, industrial design, music, film, dance, and fashion. The characteristics of futurism include: the rejection of traditional value frameworks in the field of culture, ie striving for art freed from the weight of its past, highlighting youth as a key capital of social development, technology, modernization of urban spaces, the dynamism of industrial plants, exploring speed through the representation of objects such as cars or airplanes. Notable Futurists were : Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Gerardo Dottori, Fortunato Depero, Luigi Russolo, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Antonio Sant’Elia.Futurism influenced Art Deco, Cubo-futurism, Constructivism, Rayonism, Vorticism, and Precisionism.
See our full Futurism Art Movement Guide for more information.
What is Art Deco?
Art Deco is a style in visual art and architecture that originated in France on the eve of the First World War and had a global expansion in the interwar period. The name of this style comes from the name of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925. This style developed a characteristic visuality that rested on geometrization, a modern approach to traditional themes and motifs, as well as on the use of luxurious materials impeccably crafted. This style developed in the fields of painting, architecture, fashion, jewelry, furniture design, as well as industrial and car design.
The characteristics of Art Deco are a combination of the heritage of ancient cultures such as Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Japanese with the products of ongoing modernization processes. The aesthetics of Art Nouveau, more specifically the Central European artistic phenomenon known as the Vienna Secession, had a great influence on the development of Art Deco. The unique eclecticism of Art Deco is closed with early modernist and avant-garde influences through Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Futurism. Notable Art Deco artists were René Lalique, Léon Bakst, Jean Dunand, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Sonia Delaunay, Tamara de Lempicka, Romain de Tirtoff Erté, Le Corbusier, Georges Lepape, Jean Després.See our full Art Deco Guide.
Futurism and Art Deco Similarities
The similarities between Futurism and Art Deco are reflected in admiration for modernity, geometrization, the approach to skyscraper architecture as well as in the influence that both Futurism and Art Deco had on several arts.Futurism vs. Art Deco: Admiration for the modernity
Modernization processes were the primary inspiration for artists from the Futurist movement as well as those who belonged to Art Deco. The significant and rapid changes brought about by these processes were visible in increasingly developed traffic, new urban solutions, in the construction of modern industrial complexes. Symbols of these social changes are visible in the art of Futurism and Art Deco.Futurism vs. Art Deco: Geometrization
Common to the visual poetics of Futurism and Art Deco is the dominant Cubist influence. Geometrization, as well as experimentation with perspective as formulated by Cubism, were the basis for the development of the artistic language of Futurism and Art Deco. Although the starting point is the same, Futurism and Art Deco approached geometrization differently. Futurism explored the principles of movement and speed by geometrizing the scene and breaking it up into multiple planes. Using divisionist methods, the Futurists brought their expression closer to abstraction. On the other hand, Art Deco treated Cubist geometrization much more moderately. Relying on the tradition of figurative painting, Art Deco used geometrization as a means of modernizing traditional visuality.Futurism vs. Art Deco: Influence on many arts
Futurism and Art Deco influenced artists from many fields. The Futurists wanted to impose their vision of artistic and cultural life on society through their social involvement, which grew into a political struggle. With numerous manifestos, Futurism paved the way for development in the field of literature, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, theater, applied arts, etc. Considering that Art Deco did not develop in clearly defined organizational frameworks like Futurism, it offered its vision of changing the dominant aesthetics by the total coverage of artistic production as well as mass production, which was then in its early stages.Futurism vs. Art Deco: Skyscraper architecture
In the Manifesto of Futurist Architecture written by Antonio Sant’Elia, the idea of breaking with the previous architectural tradition is emphasized. In his work, La Città Nuova / The New City from 1914 Sant’Elia insists on the high-rise buildings as a necessity of the new city space. These ideas especially came to life during the interwar period, when the most famous examples of Art Deco architecture were created. Skyscrapers as a progressive step forward in architecture were the subject of fascination in Futurism and Art Deco. Although the futurist theory of architecture was a pioneering view of the role of skyscrapers in modern architecture, the Futurists did not leave behind an example of this type of building. These ideas experienced their first authentic flowering precisely through Art Deco so that after modernist tendencies and international style, a new skyscraper architecture was generated precisely through Neo-futurism.