art since 1900 modernism antimodernism postmodernism hal foster rosalind krauss yve-alain bois benjamin h.d.buchloh my Thames & HudsonHae ae omen) To Nikos Stangos (1936-2004), in memoriam ‘With love, adiation, ana gre we dacicate this book to ‘Nikos Stangos; great editor, post, and trend, wnose belie in this project Both intigateu and sustained it through the course ‘ofits development, ‘We wouls Kae to thank Thomas Neurath and Peter Warnor for ter Patient support, and Nikos Stangos and Andrew Brawn forthe ‘ecitriat exaortise, The book woul not have boen begun without ‘kos it would not have been completed wrthout Andrew ‘The publishers wou he 1 thank Any Dars=0) fr her asisance inthe preparation ofthis book 6.2008 Hal Foster, Rossing Kauss, We Aan Bos, Banari HD, Buchioh ‘A Pghts Pesewoe. No psxtof his publication may be reproduced or ‘Warsmitiog nay frm 0: By ny means, lectranc ce mecnanical, clucing [otorcpy resoteing o any ner nfornaton storage and aval system. “Wither par pursing rom the pubsher. Fret pubtchatin eeoyern tho United States of Amerca by “Taames dann inc, 500 Fh Averuo, Now York, New York 10170 thamecandudsonusa com Library of Cengress Catalog Gad Number 2004102000 San 00-725189 Prrted ane tout Singapore by CS Greprice061-006! 1909 F. T. Marinetti publishes the first Futurist manifesto on the front page of Le Figaro in Paris: for the first time the avant-garde associates itself with media culture and positions itself in defiance of history and tradition. 1 February 20, 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinett (1876- 1944) published his “Manifeste de fondation du Futur- jsme,” the first Futurist manifesto, on the front page ofthe French newspaper Le Figaro{ 1}, Ths event signaled the publicarrival of Futurism, and pointed in multiple waystoits specifi project. First ofall, it showed that, from its very outset, Futurism wished to establish the avant-garde’s liaison with mass culture. Second, i demonstrated a conviction that all techniques and strategies opera~ tive in mass-cultural production would henceforth be essential for, the propagation of avant-garde practices as well the mere decision to publish the manifesto in the widest-circulation newspaper in France demonstrated the triple embrace of advertising, journal- ism, and forms of mass distribution. Third, it indicated that, from its initial stages, Futurism was committed to a fusion of artistic practices with advanced forms of technology ina way that Cubism, ‘awhile confronting this question in the development of collage, ‘would never wholly embrace. The slogans of Futurism that cele- brated “congenital dynamism,” “the break-up of the object,” and “ight as a destroyer of forms,” while also lauding the mechanical, famously declared that a speeding automobile is “more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace”: this was to prefer the industrial- ‘ed object tothe umique rarity ofthe cult statue, And last, although not yet visible in 1909, it prepared the way for Futurism to overturn traditional assumptions about the avant-garde’s innate tendency toward, and association with, progressivist, leftist—if not ‘Marxist—politics. For Futurism was to become, in Italy in 1919, the first avant-garde movement ofthe twentieth century to have its ‘own political and ideological project assimilated into the forma- tion of fascist ideology. From backwater to frontrunner In terms of its artists’ models, the background of Futurism is complex. Its sources are to be found in nineteenth-century French Symbolism, in French neo-Impressionist or divisionist painting, ‘sand in carly-twentieth-century Cubism, which was evolving con- temporaneously with Futurism and was clearly known to the majority of the artists in the Italian movement. What was specifi cally Italian in Futurism’s formation, however, was the very 1900 | The fret Futurist maniest is published belatedness ofthis modernist avant-garde. Thus, at the moment of the manifesto’s first publication, the key figures of Futurist paint- ing, such as Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), and Carlo Carra (1881-1966), were still working in the rather retardataire manner of 1880s divisionism. None of the strategies that had emerged in Paris in the wake of Céanne's ‘acoveries, or in the development of Fauvism or early Cubism, entered Futurist painting at its earliest moment, that iso say, prior to 1910. Furthermore, Futurism was typified by the eclecticism with which these belatedly discovered avant-garde strategies were adapted. Indeed, the speed with which they were then patched together in order to reformulate a new Futurist pictorial and sculp- tural aesthetic isindicative ofthat very eclecticism. In the wake of Marinett’s manifesto, several other Futurist rmanifestos followed, written by artists who had joined the group. ‘Among them were Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto, pub- lished in 1910 and signed by Boccioni, Bala, Carta, Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), and Gino Severini (1883-1966); the Technical Mani- festo of Futurist Sculpture, published in 1912 by Boccionis Fotodinamismo fururista, aso published in 1912, by the photog- rapher Anton Giulio Bragaglia; a 1912 manifesto of Futurist music by Balla Pratella (1880-1955); Russolo's “The Art of Noises” in 1913; and a manifesto of Futurist architecture by Antonio Sant’Elia (1888-1916) in 1914, ‘As pronounced in these documents, the strategies of Futurism revolved around three central issues. First, there was an emphasis ‘on synesthesia (the breaking down of the boundaries between the different senses, for instance, between sight, sound, and touch) and. kinesthesia (the breaking down of thedstinction between the body at rest and the body in motion). Second, Futurism tried to con- struct an analogue between pictorial signification and existing technologies of vision and representation, such as those being developed by photography—particularly in its extended forms, such as chronophotography—and by early cinema, Third, Futur- ism’s rigorous condemnation of the culture ofthe past, its violent attack on the legacies of bourgeois tradition, organized an equally passionate affirmation of the need to integrate art with advanced technology, even the technology of warfare, opening up the move- rmenttto fascism,