Futurists

"Comrades, we tell you now that the triumphant progress of science makes profound changes in humanity inevitable, changes which are hacking an abyss between those docile slaves of past tradition and us free moderns, who are confident in the radiant splendour of our future.

"We are sickened by the foul laziness of artists who, ever since the sixteenth century, have endlessly exploited the glories of the ancient Romans.

"Living art draws its life from the surrounding environment. Our forbears drew their artistic inspiration from a religious atmosphere which fed their souls; in the same way we must breathe in the tangible miracles of contemporary life- the iron network of speedy communications which envelops the earth, the transatlantic liners, the dreadnoughts, those marvellous flights which furrow our skies, the profound courage of our submarine navigators and the spasmodic struggle to conquer the unknown. How can we remain insensible to the frenetic life of our great cities and to the exciting new psychology of night-life; the feverish figures of the bon viveur, the cocotte, the apache and the absinthe drinker?

"We will also play our part in this crucial revival of aesthetic expression: we declare war on all artists and all institutions which insist on hiding behind a facade of false modernity, while they are actually ensnared by tradition, academicism and, above all, a nauseating cerebral laziness."

-From "Manifesto of the Futurist Painters 1910" by: Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severin. Found in: Futurist Manifestos: the Documents of 20th Century Art.
-Photo: "Pikes Peak Anarchy" J.G.