Books and Graphics in the Time of Futurism

Melania Gazzotti
BOOK AND GRAPHICS IN THE TIME OF FUTURISM

Abstract: This essay summarizes the main features of Futurist books, by accounting for their complex originality. Since the early stages of their careers, Futurists employed books as a privileged means of experimentation both in terms of graphics and contents. Authors like Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Francesco Cangiullo, Carlo Carrà, Fortunato Depero and Ardengo Soffici explored the visual, graphic and onomatopoeic possibilities of written words in parolibere. These authors put into practice a typographic revolution, which aimed to subvert the usual order within a page, through the use of different characters and colours. In particular, Marinetti announced the birth of this peculiar expressive form in his manifests and set the grounds for a renewal of written expression.

 

When the Futurist manifesto is published on 20th February 1909 in the first page of the French newspaper “Le Figaro” no artist can really define himself a “Futurist” as yet. This manifesto, written by FilippoTommaso Marinetti, shows the programme of a movement that has not yet been created. The true starting point of the movement therefore is the theory and a declaration of intent rather than the artistic practice. The screamed prose of this document encourages artists to cut themselves off completely cultural and, in particular the literary tradition:

 

La letteratura esaltòfino ad oggi l’immobilità pensosa, l’estasi e il sonno. Noi vogliamo esaltare il movimento aggressivo, l’insonnia febbrile, il passo di corsa, il salto mortale, lo schiaffo ed il pugno[1].

 

This text even invites to physically demolish the places where this tradition was usually appointed:

 

Noi vogliamo distruggere i musei, le biblioteche, le accademie d’ogni specie, e combattere contro il moralismo, il femminismo e contro ogni viltà opportunistica o utilitaria[2].

 

Marinetti’s outburst is focused on enhancing force and dinamism:

 

Noi vogliamo cantare l’amore del pericolo, l’abitudine all’energia e alla temerarietà...il coraggio, l’audacia, la ribellione, saranno elementi essenziali della nostra poesia[3].

 

The methods chosen to transmit this message to the world are writing, a powerful tool of persuasion, and printing, an effective system of diffusion. Therefore, the Futurist Manifesto employs strategies, which remind us more of communication than of art. Thus, Futurists print many copies of their propaganda papers and publish them in newspapers and reviews, they distribute them on the streets, or they even drop them from airplanes on towns. These texts – with the exception of the first manifesto, which is influenced by the symbolist tradition - are essential, synthetic, direct, clear and show a determinate intention to experiment in writing.

The topics of these papers do not only concern art (literature, paintings, music, cinema, sculpture, architecture, photography and theatre), but also everyday life and costume. Moreover, they innovate the style of texts, by justifying their choices with precise theoretical references. In Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista[4], which concerns in particular the poetical inspiration, Marinetti describes how to overwhelm free verse: he encourages to destroy the syntax and to abolish the adjective, the adverb, the conjunctions and the punctuation, by using verbs in the infinitive form and of nouns, which have to be connected by analogy.

Marinetti explains how these rules shoud be applied by referring to his poem La battaglia di Tripoli. This composition does not challenge traditional syntax, since it is partly constituted by a collection of reportages of the war experiences of the poet in Lybia, which were initially published in instalments on the French newspaper “L’Intransigeant”. In fact, in this initial phase the innovations in the literary field mainly regards themes and contents; as can be seen in the editorial choices by Marinetti whose publishing house Edizioni futuriste di “Poesia” publishes some free verses written by young and promising writers. Thus, Marinetti aims to create a group of artists who will contribute to his project of cultural renewal of the country. Marinetti considers the book to be the main medium of his propaganda: he publishes from one to two thousand copies (an impressive number for the editorial market at that time), which he distributes freely via mail to critics, journalists and intellectuals, without caring about the economic benefits.

In 1909, he publishes Gian Pietro Lucini’s Revolverate, by substituting the less effective original title Canzoni amare. A year later he publishes Aldo Palazzeschi’s L’Incendiario, which he introduces with a report on the first Futurist evening in Trieste and with a collection of articles that defended futurism. Both volumes are characterised by a libertarian and antibourgeois vein, as are the two subsequent publications Corrado Govoni’s Poesie elettriche in 1911 and Luciano Folgore’s Il canto dei Motori in 1912. Marinetti selects the works by these authors for the anthology I poeti futuristi[5], except for Lucini who has already left the movement in 1910. This volume, printed in twenty thousand copies, is entirely constituted by poems in free verses. In other terms, these poems are related to the symbolist and decadent experience, rather than following the revolutionary principles of the Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista[6], which introduces this antology. Even Marinetti’s first parolibera, Battaglia + peso + odore, included in the Supplemento al Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista, does not introduce courageous typographic experimentations, but only the use of some mathematical symbols, which substitute the punctuation and the conjunctions as written in the manifest:

 

Abolire anche la punteggiatura. Essendo soppressi gli aggettivi, gli avverbi e le congiunzioni, la punteggiatura è naturalmente annullata, nella continuità varia di uno stile vivo, che si crea da sé, senza le soste assurde delle virgole e dei punti. Per accentuare certi movimenti e indicare le loro direzioni, s’impiegheranno i segni della matematica: +--x: = ><, e i segni musicali[7].

 

For the first time Marinetti writes this text entirely in Italian rather than in French. This text is constructed by an accumulation of images, which are evoked through a quick succession of nouns and verbs in the infinitive, and might be considered precisely as the conjunction between the free verse and the subsequent “parole in libertà”. Marinetti gives further indications concerning the way in which this new composition form should be put into practice in another manifest: L’immaginazione senza fili e le parole in libertà. in which celebrates a proper typographic revolution:

 

Io inizio una rivoluzione tipografica diretta contro la bestiale e nauseante concezione del libro di versi passatista e dannunziana[8].

 

The rules of symmetry and harmony of the page should be subverted systematically by employing different typographic characters and colours, capitals together with small letters, bold, italics, creative spaces between words and unusual disposition of the words within the page. Onomatopoeia plays a central role in this text, since it aims at introducing elements of real life within the writing, by argumenting the evocative possibilities of the writing:

 

Noi futuristi iniziamo l’uso audace e continuo dell’onomatopea...allo scopo di dare la massima quantità di vibrazioni e una piú profonda sintesi della vita, noi aboliamo tutti i legami stilistici, tutte le lucide fibbie colle quali i poeti tradizionali legano le immagini nel loro periodare[9].

 

This trait is also evident in the title of Marinetti’s first collection of parolibere Zang Tumb Tuuum(1914).

 

 

image 1a: FilippoTommaso Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tuuum, Adrianopoli ottobre, 1912. Parole in libertà, Edizioni futuriste di “Poesia”, Milano 1914 Brescia, Collection Longo-Albertini)

 

This volume collects many poems previously published between 1912 and 1913 in the Florentine review Lacerba and refers to the besiege of the Turkish town Adrianopoli by Serbs and Bulgarians (1912-1913).

 

 

image 1b: FilippoTommaso Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tuuum, Adrianopoli ottobre, 1912. Parole in libertà, Edizioni futuriste di “Poesia”, Milano 1914, pp. 120-121 Brescia, Collection Longo-Albertini

 

Although Marinetti was present at this event as correspondent for the French newspaper “Gil Blas”, he chooses to use an impersonal writing, by putting into practice the disappearance of the narrating self, which he theorises in the Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista:

 

Distruggere nella letteratura l’io, cioè tutta la psicologia. L’uomo completamente avariato dalla biblioteca e dal museo, sottoposto a una logica e ad una saggezza spaventose, non offre assolutamente più interesse alcuno. Dunque, dobbiamo abolirlo nella letteratura, e sostituirlo finalmente colla materia, di cui si deve afferrare l’essenza a colpi d’intuizione, la qual cosa non potranno mai fare i fisici né i chimici[10].

 

Marinetti describes a collective action, which takes place simultaneously and therefore cannot be contained in a rigid narrative structure, which is organised chronologically. The unusual graphic composition of this text is aimed to surprise the reader: the graphic, visual and phonetic connotation of words is as important as their meaning. In addition, words are repeated, transformed, isolated or reduced to single letters. The linear progression of reading from left to right is disrupted, by inviting the reader to let his gaze move freely within the page. Thanks to this uncommon disposition, Marinetti’s literary works borders on figurative art. He creates a subtle equilibrium between typographic characters and blanks, which transforms them into a structural element of the composition and emphasises the dense materiality of words. Blanks do not only stand for silences, but also introduce spatial and temporal elements such as pauses. In other terms, they substitute punctuation, which futurist poetry deeply ostracized.

This original disposition and choice of fonts is very revolutionary for this epoch even from a technical point of view, if one thinks about the machinery and printing processes available at the time. The realization of this first parolibero text is made possible, as stated at the end of Zang Tumb Tuuum, thanks to the ability and creativeness of the Milanese typographer Cesare Cavanna, a loyal collaborator of the Futurists, thanks to whom numerous other parolibero volumes are published.

Thanks to the organization of words within the page and to the frequent use of onomatopoeias, parolibere might likely be read aloud, as if they were music scores, which have to be declaimed rather than played. As the manifesto La declamazione dinamica e sinottica maintains, the interpreter of parolibere should depersonalise his voice and movements, in order to employ a “geometrical” and dynamic gesticulation as indicated in the manifest La declamazione dinamica e sinottica:

 

Disumanizzare completamente la voce, togliendole sistematicamente ogni modulazione o sfumatura...Disumanizzare completamente la faccia, evitare ogni smorfia, ogni effetto d’occhi...Metallizzare, liquefare, vegetalizzare, pietrificare ed elettrizzare la voce, fondendola colle vibrazioni stesse della materia, espresse dalle parole in libertà... Avere una gesticolazione geometrica, dando così alle braccia delle rigidità taglienti di semafori e di raggi di fari per indicare le direzioni delle forze, o di stantuffi e di ruote, per esprimere il dinamismo delle parole in libertà[11].

 

Nonetheless, the vocal and musical elements should be subordinated to the visual signs. In this regard, as suggested in Marinetti’s third manifest Lo splendoregeometrico e meccanico e la sensibilitànumerica, which is dedicated in particular to writing,maintains that words should be reduced to a simple graphic sign. In other terms, Marinetti believes that the meaning of words is less important than their immediate forms as images.

Many futurist poets followed Marinetti’s principles and instructions. For instance, Luciano Folgore publishes Ponti sull’oceano in the same year as Zang Tumb Tuuum. This volume exemplifies his “synthetic lyricism” a sort of compromise between parolibere and compositions in free verses  which he theorised in an eponymous manifest. Folgore employs typographical artifice, but does not radically disrupt the rules of syntax. On the cover of Ponti sull’oceano, designed by the architect Antonio Sant’Elia, the title creates the shape of a bridge. This book is promoted by the Edizionifuturiste di “Poesia”, which also printed the most remarkable publications of this kind, such as Paolo Buzzi’s L’ellisse e la spirale (Film + Parole in libertà, Auro D’Alba’s Baionette, Corrado Govoni’s Rarefazioni (including his famous Autoritratto) and Francesco Cangiullo’s Piedigrotta recited in two futurist evenings.

 

 

image 2: Francesco Cangiullo, Piedigrotta, Edizioni futuriste di “Poesia”, Milano 1916 Torino, Collection Alessandro Dorna

 

In this period, experimentations with words are also performed on canvas. Between 1911 and 1912, many futurist painters started to introduce alphabetic signs in their paintings by composing papierscollés with press cuttings assembled on the painted surface. Through the collage technique, the audacious lettering of parolibere is associated with images, both painted or graphically inserted, which are connected to the main themes of the movement such as speed, modernity and war. For instance, Carlo Carrà creates examples of “poems-painting”; Marinetti attempts to conjugate plastic dynamism and “parole in libertà” in his “Parolibere drawing”; Gino Severini talks of “painted literature”. These artists also compose paroliberi books. In Carrà’s Guerrapittura, reproductions of works, theoretical essays and typographic experimentations are assembled together. Similarly, Ardengo Soffici’s Bïf§Zf+18 24 looks like a newspaper and has a wonderful cover with colours, which is composed by using the technique of collage. The painter, scenographer, advertiser and designer FortunatoDepero contributes to the research on the visual possibilities of printing in his “Libro imbullonato”, which he composed in order to celebrate his fourteenth year of militancy in the futurist movement.

 

 

image 3: Fortunato Depero, Depero futurista, Dinamo Azari, Milano 1927 Torino, Collection Alessandro Dorna

 

At a first glance, this volume is surprising for his outstretched shape and the thickness of the pages. These features, together with the binding made with aluminium bolts ideated by Dinamo Azari, provide this volume with a massive appearance. “Libroimbullonato” contains many parolibere, printed on different colours and weights, along with reproductions of paintings, arrases, drawings and projects, which are aimed at advertising Depero’s work and that of the publishing house Azari. As the case of “Libro imbullonato” clearly shows, the research on the field of editorial graphics by futurists is particularly creative not merely in the poetic expression throughparolibere but also in the format of their books as well as in their covers and illustrations.

The literary production of this movement is not limited to poetry but it is also very prolific in prose, since futurists published texts as diverse as theatre plays, essays, recipe books and different novels, which ranged across a large variety of popular themes (love stories, science-fiction novels, war stories, detective stories). Like in parolibere books, in these novels the style is as important as the content and the aesthetic appearance of the volume, including the layout and the decorations. Sometimes the author draws his own cover. For instance, Alfredo Trimarco covers his book Alta Velocità with silver paper, a colour that evokes the metal surface of cars and airplanes. Frequently, futurist artists address other members of the movement. For example, Francesco Balilla Pratella asked Umberto Boccioni to compose a board for Musica futurista. Similarly, Bruno Munari contributed to Pino Masnata’s Anime sceneggiate.

Futurists carefully selected the packaging of their editorial products. This feature is much in line with the assumptions of Giacomo Balla e Fortunato Depero’s manifesto La ricostruzione futurista dell’universo: futurism did not only aim at exploiting the potentialities of visual and written communication, but also to permeate every aspect of human life. The results of this ceaseless research on books will have a determinant influence on the graphics between the two wars in Italy and outside the national boundaries, particularly on a generation of young talents, who will become protagonists of the artistic scene after the Second World War, such as the above-mentioned Bruno Munari.

 

Acknowledgements:

The paper was translated from Italian to English by Simone Brioni.  Special thanks to Maria and Rosanna Francescotti.



[1]Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, “Manifesto del futurismo”, Le Figaro, 20 febbraio 1909, p. 1

[2]Ibid..

[3]Ibid..

[4]Marinetti publishes this manifesto for the first time as a leafleft on May 11, 1912.

[5]L. Altomare, Mario Bètuda, Paolo Buzzi, I poeti futuristi, Milano: Edizioni futuriste di “Poesia”, 1912.

[6]This volume contains the second edition of the manifesto: Supplemento al Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista, dal titolo Risposte alle obiezioni, August 11, 1912

[7]Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista

[8]Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Immaginazione senza fili e parole in libertà, Milano: Direzione del Movimento Futurista, 1913.

[9]Ibid..

[10] Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Manifesto tecnico della letteratura futurista, Milano: Direzione del Movimento Futurista, 11 maggio 1912

[11]Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, La declamazione dinamica e sinottica, Milano: Direzione del Movimento Futurista, 1916.


Melania Gazzotti (Brescia, 1976) is a freelance art curator and an art historian. Since 2004 she has been collaborating with the Mart – the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Trento and Rovereto. She is interested in artist's books and in the relationship between art and written language. She organized the exhibitions “Libri taglienti, esplosivi e luminosi. Avanguardie artistiche e libro tra Futurismo e libro d’artista” (Trento, Bolzano 2004, in collaboration with Museion, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano), "Verba Manent" (Trento, 2005), "La Parola nell'arte. Ricerche d’avanguardia nel ‘900. Dal Futurismo ad oggi attraverso le collezioni del Mart" (MART, Rovereto, 2007), "Primo amore. La passione di un collezionista. 100 Libri d'artista. The passion of a collector 100 artists' books" and "Books. Libri d'artista dagli anni Sessanta ad oggi – Books. Artists' books from the sixties to the present day" (Bologna 2006 and 2008 in collaboration with the Artelibro Festival, Bologna). Melania Gazzotti’s work also focuses on historical avant-gardes. On this topic, she organized the exhibitions "Bulloni, grazie e bastoni. Il libro futurista" (Cagliari, Brescia, Reggio Calabria, 2009) and "Dada e futurismo. Da Marinetti a Tzara. Da Mantova all'Europa nel segno dell'avanguardia" (Mantova, 2009).

Future's Past:The Italian Futurism and its Influence, January 2011