Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (figure 1) was created in Italy at the height of Futurism. Futurism was the foundation for Boccioni and his counterparts to work; it was derived from Marinetti’s manifesto. This manifesto of 1909 characterised Futurism’s glorification of technology and the speed associated with it. Yet Marinetti’s ideas were not invented without influence. The industrialisation of Europe, as well as French movements in art and literature stimulated Marinetti’s ideas.

Marinetti: The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism

Marinetti was a young poet in his twenties at the turn-of-the-century. He was frustrated with the lack of progress in Italy compared to the rest of Europe therefore, in 1909, to prepare Italy for the great adventure of modern times he issued The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism. He attacked the old traditions of culture promoting the modern: “We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness. …Courage, audacity and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry. …We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beau

Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space represents the pinnacle of Futurism. The movement, inspired by all the characteristics of modernity, aimed to establish a new Italian society rejecting all that contrasted with the new. Marinetti was the forerunner of the period defining the glorification of war, the machine, and above all speed, in his manifesto. Many artists embraced the new concepts and set about to create a way to visualise the ideas. Boccioni, initially using painting, took a leading role in defining Futurism as a style. He moved to sculpture and in 1913 met the end of Futurism with his work Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. This work incorporated the principles of urbanisation and the machine working in terms of speed. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is the direct result of modernity.

From 1911 to 1914 Boccioni became preoccupied with sculpture. He felt that sculpture was even more backward thinking than art due to its devotion to the nude: “…an art that must that all the clothes off a man or women in order to provide any emotive effect is a dead art” (Tisdall, 1996, p. 74). In his writing The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture he expresses his ideals. He felt he had found a way to renovate sculpture. He wanted to emphasis intuition, as Bergson expressed and depict matter in terms of movement and duration. This approach was to replace the common method of breaking up the environment into individual elements. He aimed to take the object he wished to create and begin with its central core, linking the external plasticity with the internal. Dynamism was the essence: “Dynamism is the lyrical conception of forms, interpreted in the infinite manifestations of the relativity between absolute motion and relative motion, between the environment and the object which come together to form the appearance of a whole…” (Apollonio, 1973, p. 92). Despite Boccioni’s obvious contrast with Cubism his sculpture Antigrazioso (Figure 4) was accused of plagiarism because of its likeness to Picasso’s Head (Figure

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