Futurism

Together with all residents of Lambeth and Southwark I received free tickets to visit Tate Modern on its Open Day on Sunday for local residents. This was to flag up the plans to build a new extension, which has been given the go ahead by Southwark Council, and which is due to be completed by 2012. There is a short video shown at the gallery demonstrating the history of the building, which was once a massive power station designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and which opened in 1949. The building has achieved iconic status and is now Europe's biggest gallery of modern art. The building lay empty for many years after 1982 but was reopened as Tate Modern in 2000.

Now the area containing the former oil tanks and another space which was used until recently by the energy company EDF is to be used by the Tate as a large extension. This will involve a lattice type brick constuction which will allow natural light into the extension and which will be one of the greenest buildings in London producing most of its own energy needs and being almost carbon neutral. The former underground oil tanks will be used as vast exhibition and performance spaces and will also be used to include artists from the local communities in Lambeth and Southwark. This is an excellent move, as is the community garden, beside the gallery which is opened up to those who have no gardens in the area for their use. Many of those living in Bankside and within walking distance of the gallery live in high rise and cramped housing with no access to a garden. The newsletter produced by the Tate had interviews with several of these local residents who use the garden. One elderly woman described how she only had window boxes and how the community garden was wonderful for her. The Tate also allows its garden friends to pick herbs grown in the community garden for cooking and other uses. This is a real example of a major art facility serving the needs not only of tourists and those who usually access large art galleries but also of the local community living in their shadow.

The ticket allowed access to the exhibition on Futurism, which is an absolutely fascinating show on an artistic and literary movement which dominated Europe from 1906 to 1915. For me Futurism has always been suspect because of its links with Italian Fascism and its glorification of war - and this did emerge from the exhibition. My only complaint with the exhibition is that it did not really explore the consequences of Futurism for the growth of Fascism in Italy after World War I. But it does demonstrate the pan-European nature of the movement, although it had different titles in different countries and major artistic arguments between its various offshoots.

In France it produced Cubism and Picasso, although the Cubists disagreed in many ways with the Futurists. In Britain it produced Vorticism, although the Vorticists also claimed that they had major disagreements with the Futurists. It also had a school in Russia termed the 'Cubo-Futurists' who disagreed violently with the Italian Futurists and particularly over their views on women. Marinetti, the Futurist leader in Italy, denounced feminism as a dangerous cult and called for the masculinisation of both sexes. Goncharova, a female Russian artist, led the group in Russia but totally rejected Marinetti's views on women and he received a frosty reception when he visited Russia. The picture above is of Goncharova's 'The Cyclist'.

Speed and movement and modernity were the keystones of Futurist art. Some of these artists glorified electric light and called for the ending of the romanticism of moonlight and night. They were diametrically opposed to anything which they conceived of as being 'romantic' or 'feminine' and hymned the triumph of modernity. The movement which they worshiped so much can be seen in 'The Cyclist' where the artist fuses the man and the machine. But this represented the dark side of the movement also where war was seen as man's highest aim - the disinfectant which eradicate the germs of the old and decrepit society. One of the paintings in the exhibition (Russolo's 'The Rebellion') represents rebellion and shows the mass of people moving up diagonally in the painting coloured bright red, while breaking through v shaped lines coloured blue, which represent tradition and reaction. In fact if one did not know otherwise, some of these paintings could be taken as examples of early Soviet art - and the influences on that art are visible. Of course, early Soviet art also made the factories and modernity heroic and one historian of Eastern Europe has remarked how many smoking chimneys are visible on early Soviet posters.

But the drive for war led Marinetti and the Futurists to actively call for Italy's involvement in World War I and some of the paintings are of pro-war rallies staged in Italy and against Italian politicians who wanted neutrality. Many of the French and Italian Futurists joined up and several were either killed or wounded. C W Nevinson, who was their only real follower in Britain, and whose paintings of scenes from World War I are well worth seeing in the Imperial War Museum, became an ambulance driver on the Western Front. Within a few months Nevinson's views on war changed dramatically however, and he broke with the Futurists. Nevinson wrote: "I am living in a nightmare. All I have seen are wounds, bandages, death and disinfectant." This artistic legitimisation of war and violence led directly towards Italian Fascism and Mussolini used it to cover his movement at the beginning.

The art of Futurism is impressive and its call for a reawakening of artists and society still resonates today - it called for a turning away from the academies and sentimentality towards daring and challenge. But it took several dangerous turnings and was not in any way motivated by a search for social justice or equality. Also its declaration of war on nature in some ways produced the society in which we live today, where the fast car (much worshiped by the Futurists) and the latest gadget are more important than the nurturing of the planet or the care of other life forms. It is ironic that this exhibition is being housed in a former power station - the Futurists would have appreciated that. They would have been less keen on the community garden outside.

Is their worship of speed, brutality and war, still an aspect of modern Fascism? Most members of the BNP would never have heard of Marinetti or Russolo, but their fellow Fascists in Italy would have. It remains to be seen whether the present economic crisis throws up a new art movement, one which perhaps could be used for dangerous ideological aims.