Futurism in Italy 1909-1914
The instigator of Futurism and its chief theorist, was the Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944). It was he who launched the movement in an article published in the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dell'Emilia and the French paper Le Figaro, in February 1909. This general Manifesto was followed in February and April 1910 by two further bulletins: the Manifesto of Futurist Painting and Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting. As well as Marinetti, they were signed by the painters Carlo Carra (1881-1966), Giacomo Balla (1871-1958) and Gino Severini (1883-1966), the sculptor Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), and the painter and musician Luigi Russolo (1885-1947). There was also a Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, written by Antonio Sant'Elia (1886-1916).