Comparison Of Futurism And Neo-Plasticism Art Movements
What comes up to your mind when you hear the word Avant-Garde? Avant-garde is basically a French term, meaning in English modern art which started in the beginning of 1850s. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, it seemed with reference to art in France and was attributed to the significant theorist Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the founders of socialism. At the very end of the modern period, several types of Avant-garde art appeared such as contemporary art movements. In another way, being avant-garde needs to explore new artistic methods, or try-out new approaches to have the ability to produce better art. In addition, Avant-garde has a lot of other movements such as cubism, futurism, Neo-Plasticism or surrealism which have had strong programs, but will further be described in detail about the differences and similarities of Neo-Plasticism and Futurism. Even though both movements came in the same century; however, Futurism came before Neo-Plasticism and was not founded from the same origin.
Futurism and Neo-Plasticism period have been selected to exhibit how two art movements can have comparisons yet still hold true to their own values, thoughts, and principles to produce a decisive style. Even though they are both Avant-Garde movements, they have more differences than the similarities, starting with the definition of each movement first. Which artist limits their selves by two or three colours? Yes, Neoplasticism is a term approved by the Dutch inventor of abstract art developed by Piet Mondrian. In addition to the art movement Futurism which was one of the avant-garde movements founded in Milan in 1909 by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti as also it was an artistic and social movement that highlighted speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as cars, airplane, and the industrial city. World War 1 had been dominant of both Futurisms’ imaginary since Marinetti had launched the movement at that time and Neoplasticism emerged largely in response to the fears of it, but more on Futurism from the time when it appeared on the first page of Le Figaro in Paris. Both art movements had been influenced by other movements such as Pop Art, Cubism and Art Deco. Not only Boccioni's encounter with Cubist painting had an important influence, but also Neo-Plasticism was one of the related art movements to cubism as they came after each other.
Alessandro Bruschetti was an Italian Futurist artist who was inspired by the World War and is shown in his artwork. It is obvious how Alessandro used portraits of solders and airplanes with other machinery equipment to send a message that the World War had a big impact on many artists throughout the years and this period of time. Why did I choose this artwork specifically? Fascist Synthesis stands out for the perfect meaning of the art movement Futurism and it describes how Cubism had influenced it.
Furthermore, Futurism has some matches relating to Neo-Plasticism such as similar colours, the inspiration of Cubism and the World War 1 as long as it was in the same century. Cubism had a huge influence on both movements and it is shown in architecture, artwork, product and interiors.
Oppositely, there are a lot of differences between both movements when it comes to the material, style, texture, and the time each one was ended in. Architect Antonio Sant'Elia became one the futurist architect by making drawings of modern cities and futuristic buildings. Materials which are used in architecture are glass, cardboard, reinforced concrete, as well as, wood, brick, and stone substitutes, different lightness and flexibility. Moving to the main painters of Neoplasticism are Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian which applied their style to a host of media in the fine and applied arts and beyond for their own type of abstract painting which used geometric forms in black, white, grey, and primary colours. There are four main elements in Neoplasticism architecture which are white elements to shape the house and its structure, grey elements to show the hidden and exposed areas, linear elements and functional elements.
It is obvious how it was against the decorative excesses of Art Deco. Futurism’s main subject is modern urban scenes which express energy, so it was something at that time. Later on, The Futurists discovered every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture and even gastronomy. “We Futurists are trying with the power of intuition, to place ourselves at the very centre of things, in such a way that our ego forms with their own uniqueness a single complex. We give plastic planes a plastic expansion in space, obtaining this feeling of something in perpetual motion which is peculiar to everything living” – Carlo Carra. “What do I want to express with my work? Nothing else than that every artist seeks: to achieve harmony through the balance of the relationship between lines, colours and planes.
But only in clearest and strongest way” – Piet Mondrian. The difference between the two quotes explains the way of thinking and how the final work is planned to be. The work of Futurism expresses more things and is more complicated compared to how simple Neoplasticism is which has one goal, to make art simple and basic as possible and that was the only reason. Simplification was needed in the art world to be returned, and especially after cynicism of the Dada, the damage and confusion of World War 1. It is said that Futurism ended in 1915-16 but still, artists nowadays get influenced by how art, violence, and machines are connected together to form an artwork because they represented the technological triumph of man over nature. However, Futurists made artwork which was inspiring until Marinetti’s death in 1944, later art movements such as Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism, Surrealism, Dadaism and much later Neo-Futurism were severely influenced by the work of the Futurists.
Are Marinetti’s thoughts still existent? Yes in the Japanese culture and their mangas and anime, but with new development such as speed was chosen in order to create new forms of theatre in 1988 and after that Futurism started to be destroyed ever since the death of its leader Marinetti. Futurism did not directly recognize its unique style and worked in borrowing elements from various technical characteristics of Post-Impressionism, which include Symbolism and Divisionism and more into Divisionism. It was complicated as it divided light and colours into painted dots and stripes, and cracking the canvas plane into sections, at the beginning was taken as an example from Severini and other artists. Artists wanted to filter art to be almost scientific precision and perfection in the period of Neoplasticism. In addition, arrangement and balance made a great part of artist’s artwork, and this leads to more dominant in the next few decades of modern design and modern architecture. It was different from one artist to the other for example Theo van Doesburg used in his work diagonals and the colour green which was not common with Piet Mondrian as he was the leading painter of the group; nevertheless: other artists in the group used a combination between Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian’s work. This art movement, in the beginning, was named as De Stijl and then Piet realized that it makes more sense as Neo comes from New and Plasticism refers to form making the word Neo-Plasticism. Despite the fact that Piet Mondrian was a fan of Kandinsky’s writing, he disagreed about the variety of elements an abstract painter should use. Neoplasticism had influenced the Bauhaus artists and other later art movements such as Constructivism and artists who were associated with Minimalism.
One of Theo van Doesburg work which was different from Piet Mondrian’s work as he uses different geometric shapes and as said before developing the work and using different colours such as green. Each artist must have their own special artwork, but if they are both the leaders of that movement they cannot disagree on one of the ideas. Rectangular and colour blocks are applied in the design of the Schröder House in 1924 and it was described as an icon building of the Neoplasticism architecture in which Rietveld achieves the perfect combination of the movement concepts and considers the interior elements and the architectural design proving the principles. There was a lot of disagreement about the diagonals Van Doesburg created, so he and Mondrian split and everyone moved to deferent places.
One the Futuristic building made by Antoni Gaudi that describes Barcelona and Spain, and perfectly explains the movement Futurism since it looks like a spaceship and shows how architects turned it into Modern architecture.
Can you recognise in which art movement this building got influenced? This architecture building looks modern and is actually a futuristic and identifies exactly the term futurism. By using pencil to draw the outline and then shading with black fine line made it more visible and similar to the original picture. It is complicated and not easy to tell where exactly its entrance is and whether it’s a real spaceship or a normal building. It shows that many futurists got inspired by the World War and it had big effect on architects, as most of the buildings nowadays are modern and futuristic such as, the bullring, the tall buildings in New York and other buildings. On the other hand, Neoplasticism is simple and most of the buildings are not tall ones and just two or three floors or else it will just be a block of buildings with some primary colours. Showing the difference between Neoplasticism artwork and architecture how it is made. In both drawings primary colours are used, and the rectangular shape of Piet Mondrian. One of Zaha Hadid designs which is a modern design and influenced by futuristic buildings which impresses many people.
In a nutshell, some people do not see Neoplasticism as a real art as Futurism as I have always been inspired by Futuristic architecture, interiors and artworks. It express a big message to the world how World War 1 made a big influence on many architects such as the famous architect Zaha Hadid and other famous architects and artists. Definitely both artists compared to architectural way of making it, they are no way to be compared even though they have things in common like different art movements, same century, some of the colours in artworks and being an Avant-Garde. It is said that Futurism had been extinct since Marinetti’s death, but it shows that futuristic buildings is being developed into Modern Art; however: it is not built as cars, airplanes or other mechanical machines. In Neoplasticism, decoration in interiors, exteriors or even artwork was not something in the option of architects and artists’ option. Both art movements was not originated from the same place, had different years when they got known.
