FUTURISM AND THE VITALIST INHERITANCE
Out of its origin in Greek metaphysical thought, Vitalism
favours the fluid state of ‘becoming’ over the state of completion suggested by
the notion of ‘being’, it prefers movement to stillness, values action above
inaction and enjoys more than structure. In short, Vitalism envisages life in
terms of a force that arises from within and produces its own very special type
of order. For this reason shades of Vitalist thinking frequently emerge in
thinking of artist and this is particularly true when, like the Futurists, they
are speaking on behalf of some imagined, new universal order.
As Carlo Carra wrote in 1913: ‘We Futurists seek to
identify with the core of things through the power of intuition, so that our
Ego will merge with their uniqueness in a complex whole. Thus we depict the
planes of a picture like a spheric expansion in space, obtaining the sense of
perpetual motion which is innate in every living thing. Only this way can we
express the soul and atmosphere of all things.’ – source: ‘How to read Modern
Painting’ by Jon Thompson /Thames & Hudson 2006
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