Futurism

Futurism was primarily concerned with images of speed and motion, which were intended to represent the spirit of the modern age. Although the greatest expression of Futurism is found in the medium of painting, there were some sculptural pieces executed as well, most notably by Umberto Boccioni. Architecture, a later focus for the movement, provided another three-dimensional forum for Futurist ideas about dynamism. The resulting schemes were visionary imaginings that were difficult to translate into actual structures and so remained, for the most part, studies on paper.

Umberto Boccioni

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

The Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni had a short but very productive life. He worked primarily as a painter, but also produced drawings, prints, and sculptures that were similarly infused with the energetic movement that symbolized the modern machine age. In 1910 he was one of the signers of the first Manifesto of the Futurist Painters and the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting..

Here, in one of Boccioni's few cast pieces, he creates an anonymous superhuman figure striding purposefully through space, but bound to its architectonic base. Considered the most successful of Boccioni's sculptural experiments, this bronze casting was done posthumously in 1949, from the artist's original plaster (which was never cast during his lifetime).

Virgilio Marchi

Architectural Study: Search for Volumes in an Isolated Building

In its upwardly spiraling movement, this drawing by Virgilio Marchi typifies Futurist architectural design. It is one of several renderings made by Marchi in 1919 and 1920 for an ideal contemporary city that was never erected. His plans indicated the preoccupation of the period with technological advances in transportation and construction. The building in the present study resembles a cone—round at the bottom, pointed at the top. There are tunneled areas and open archways below, with stairs leading to various flat levels. The two towers that rise from the center are openly constructed with stairs and columns. A spotlight is perched on a beam that extends from the peak of the left tower. The sweeping curves and strong, linear slashes of this beautiful drawing are reminiscent of Giacomo Balla's earlier painted imagery.

References:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1990.38.3

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1984.91