On the Uses of Origins for Futurism

In Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto (1910) the Italian futurists claimed that we are the Primitives of a new sensibility. This primitive can refer to Byzantine mosaics, early Renaissance paintings, and African fetishes, and the appropriation of all three by modern painting in Paris. Futurist art and theory, particularly the works of Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Carlo Carrà between 1910 and 1919, contain visual and textual references to these primitives all enjoying revivals during this period which demonstrate an awareness of both artworks and art-historical interpretations. The essay addresses these references in the light of Boccionis art-historical diagram of 1913, which implies that art history passes through cycles, rather than evolving continuously. Arguing against the dominant discourse of progress around avantgardism, this essay contends that futurisms interest in the primitive in these senses leads us to reconsider the nature of futurisms antipassatismo, and, therefore, the temporality of avant-gardism. © Association of Art Historians 2015.