Abstraction At The Avant -Garde: Italian Futurism

Abstraction at the avant -garde: Italian futurism

The concept of abstraction can be understood with the etymological sense of the word "abstract". It is defined as “separating the properties of an object through a mental operation. This brain activity that allows to isolate at the conceptual level, a certain quality of something with the intention of surrendering to a reflection on it without considering the rest of the properties of the object in question ”therefore, the abstraction is the action of focusing on thethought instead of giving attention to the sensitive world.

The avant -garde used to be the part of the army that advanced in the front of the confrontation, today the word is associated with ideological, artistic, political and literary movements that break into the canons of today’s society and propose novel ideas that escape fromThe predominant trends of the minute. “The avant -garde is a renewal of forms and content. Try to reinvent the bases and face existing movements. In the beginning, the avant -garde is minority and usually generates rejection by traditionalist circles ”, however many end up becoming part of the system, thus losing their avant -garde quality. This is why most of them are ephemeral, since or are not accepted, or normalize within society and lose their denomination.

Established both issues to be addressed, the following research thesis originates: the process of abstraction is what allows the avant -garde of the twentieth century (Italian futurism, cubism, purism, neoplasticism, expressionism, surrealism and expressionism) could be carried outAt this time, and without the use of this concepts, these avant -garde would not have a fundamental basis to consolidate or make their ideas.

That is, the avant -garde appear through abstraction.

Plasticity, or plastic “is the quality of a work of articulating in space, more or less pronounced. Plasticity in the real sense, understood as the ability to shape, shape a three -dimensional form.”An example is sculpture, where a form in space is developed in more than one direction. The plasticity of an object “is conceived through sensations directly noticeable by the eye, thus creating certain physical sensations for each primary form.”At the beginning of the 20th century there is a change in the conception of the plastic arts that begins a process of reforming in terms of conception what is art. According to Ozenfant and Jeanneret, “contrary to what had been admitted so far, the plastic arts – that believed them motionless – originate in the movement."

It is the concept of movement that originates the avant -garde of Italian futurism. This avant -garde seeks a utopian technology city, which cares about movement and consequently in circulations. It takes place in Italy with its greatest exponents being Marinetti, Boccioni and Antonio Sant’elia. These character are interested in the movement, both in the sounds, either the typical case of the onomatopoeia that represents the machine gun "ta ta ta ta" and what is called abstract speed. This term refers to the movement that leaves a tour, for example, as seen in the work of Giacomo Balla, it is no longer interestedweather. In this way a fourth dimension to art is added, time, a concept that in itself is an abstraction of how humans develop in the universe. According to Boccioni, “all these convictions force me to seek in sculpture, not a pure way, but the construction of the action of the bodies. I have as ideal a spiral architecture (dynamism), ”in other words, seeks to live the circulations allowed through architecture. On the other hand, they move away from the traditional way of drawing, leaving aside the representation with perspective, thus finding a new way of representing space through abstraction, since properties are separated from an object for the best understanding of the space. Boccioni states that “his inspiration seeks, through regular investigation, a complete merger of the environment and the object through the interpretation of plans."While Italian futurism continues to represent realistic objects, the way it does is through abstraction, and opens the passage to other avant -garde that further deepen the concept in the concept.

On the other hand is Cubism, which is divided into two stages: analytical and synthetic. The first breaks down real objects into parts, fighting against the traditional ways of representing art. The perspective space is set aside (the figures float in a background) and the volume (the elements are broken down into plans). While in synthetic cubism (specifically with the implementation of collage) the elements of reality come together with those of representation and a non -rational side of artistic expression is found. As a result, "the work of art is an artificial physical object intended to produce subjective reactions," so, gradually, art goes from being an objective intellectual process where only reality is appreciated as it is, to a subjective one, and byEnde, abstract.

As against Cubism, purism arises, which recovers the order that the Cubists had broken and uses proportions and traces regulators that guide the disposition of the elements both in the architectural plane and in the pictorial space. While it calls the geometric/technical order and uses the type objects, it remains linked to the “conceptual duality around which the rest of Le Corbusier’s work will turn: on the one hand, the imperative need to meet functional requirements through aempirical form, and on the other the impulse of using abstract elements to affect the senses and nourish the intellect."While returning to classical forms in order to be functional, it merges with abstract elements that promote ideas, evoke feelings and call subjectivity within architecture.

Neoplasticism “offers a much more analytical conception of works and tries not to imitate elements of real life, but to represent the forms and colors of reality.”It proposes to remove art from that element that is an accessory, but seeks to reach the essence through an objective plastic language. Theo Van Doesburg proposes in his manifesto that “the abolition of every concept of form in the sense of a pre -established type has an essential importance for the healthy development of architecture and art in general. Instead of using and imitating previous styles as models, the architecture problem must be raised again."It’s about taking existing figures and proposing them in basic structures to simplicity. Images are broken down to reach abstract results. The best example would be the work of Van Doesburg himself: composition VIII, the cow. The process of abstraction is seen, where it goes from realism, to separate the properties of an object through a mental operation.

Expressionism arises, where reality is distorted to interpret nature. It is the subjective exaggeration of feelings. It has two currents, Die Brücke (the bridge) that portrays everyday life under the logic of movement;and der Blaue Reiter (the blue rider) where the interior emotions of people are represented and externalized. The work of Edvard Munch would become an exponent of this avant -garde since it represents a daily situation, but what interests is not the reality of such a situation, but the feelings. Use the colors to generate anguish, and evoke the observer a strong disturbance, where he understands loneliness thus experiencing the work, not only visualizing it. Another example would be Kandinsky who recounts frenzy between reality and the abstract. Although some kind of reality is still recognized in Munch’s work, Kandinsky moves away from this and play with lines, colors and figures (without alluding to something mundane) and in this way he evokes feelings to the observer by taking him out of the objective world andleading to the subjective through feelings.

Unlike the other movements that have some abstract aspects, surrealism is based on subjective and abstraction. This movement arises after Sigmund Freud introduces psychoanalysis. The world of dreams and the unconscious open. These worlds lie in human thought, in ideas. It seeks to transcend the real with the imaginary, it is a movement that goes on reality. As seen in the work of Salvador Dalí, the persistence of time. It is not about painting the real world, but the ideas are interpreted, in this case the theory of Einstein’s relativity. The painting becomes an argumentative and not only exhibition character (where what is seen). The distortion of watches, allude to ideas of difference in something that was believed: time, when in reality it is not. This avant -garde is about the rain of ideas, theme represented in the Golconda of René Magritte, where his person (ideologies) on Belgian cities rains. Another example becomes Roberto Matta, which focuses on the issues of movement, the fruits of progress and technology. Records his ideas and ideologies through his paintings. Thus creating an abstract universe, where there are no tangible elements, only ideas. It is the greatest form of abstraction within the avant -garde.

In conclusion, taking into account that the avant -garde seek to break the traditional methods of the moment, rationalism and realism, the only way to do it was to change the objective, to the subjective until then unexplored by art, which since the classic periodOf the Greeks, to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, it had never been explored. The subjective that is based on feelings and perception rather than in reality is linked to abstraction. This tries to separate the properties of an object at a conceptual level, with the intention of delivering some reflection on a topic. It is thanks to this new conception of art on which the avant -garde base their ideologies. It is no longer about the real, or a situation that is immortalized as it is, but it is about ideas, feelings, movement, the decomposition of such an element, it is not something that can be expressed throughA photograph for example, but is already a form of analysis and therefore criticism of the environment and the world.