A rendering by an Italian Futurist.
A century ago, a group of Italian intellectuals had had it up to here with the neo-Classicism of the 19th century. They embraced and promoted all things modern, especially the technology of the contemporary city — and in the process helped pour the foundation for the modern movement, which eventually gained a foothold in Sarasota.
“The Italian Futurists: Art and Architecture” is a lecture by Dr. Matthew McLendon, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.
His talk, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, is part of the Sarasota Architectural Foundation’s lecture series. It will be held at the Herald-Tribune’s Community Room, 1741 Main St., Sarasota. A reception follows from 7 until 8 o’clock. Admission is $10 for SAF members, $15 for non-members and $5 for students with identification. Information: info@saf-srq.org. Call 941-364-2199.
“Beginning in 1909, the Italian Futurists attempted to ignite a pan-cultural revolution in Europe and then, the world,” said Janet Minker, president of the SAF. “Seeing technology as the basis for a new culture, the Futurists resolutely rejected ‘the past’ and firmly embraced all the speed, noise, machines, communications, information, and other transient impressions of life in the modern city.
“Futurists, such as the writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the architect Antonio Sant’Elia, loudly deplored the 19th-century movement of Neo-Classicism as ‘that astounding outburst of idiocies and impotence.’
“As such, the Italian Futurists were the aesthetic and cultural basis of what was to follow during the remainder of the century, in Modern architecture in general and in the Sarasota School.”
