Resumen de On the uses of origins for futurism
In "Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto" (1910) the Italian futurist 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 Boccioni's art-historical diagram of 1913, which implies that art history passes through cycles, rather than evolving continuosly. Arguing against the dominant discourse of progress around avant-gardism, this essay contends that futurism's interest in the 'primitive' in these senses leads us to reconsider the nature of futurism's "antipassatismo", and, therefore, the temporality of avant-gardism.
