Futurism in Paris

Le Futurisme à Paris
Une avant-garde explosive
Centre Georges Pompidou
October 15, 2008 - January 26, 2009
The exhibition will travel to Rome and London
Press Release [pdf]

Catalogue: Le Futurisme à Paris: Une avant-garde explosive / ed. by Didier Ottinger (Forthcoming 2008)
ISBN 9782844263599

To mark the centenary of the publication of the Futurist Manifesto of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti on the front page of the French newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909, the Centre Pompidou presents 'Le Futurisme à Paris – une avant-garde explosive'.

Futurism, the first avant-garde movement of the 20th century, celebrated technical progress, the energy of crowds, and the hectic activity of modern cities. In place of the balance and stability inherited from classical models, it wished to substitute modern vigorousness, dynamism and speed that disintegrate forms.

The Centre Pompidou has made the re-interpretation of the principal movements in the history of art in the 20th century one of the key directions of its new strategy for temporary exhibitions. In this framework, the exhibition's ambition is to re-assess the place and the status of Futurism, a fundamental source of modern art, and to examine its impact on the French avant-garde, Cubism, inviting viewers to make a fresh analysis of the relations between these two movements through more than 200 works and documents.

All the Futurist painters, as well as Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, Félix Del Marle, Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, Frantisek Kupka, Fernand Léger, Kasimir Malévitch, Jean Metzinger, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso and Ardengo Soffici are the protagonists of this dialogue whose echo was international in scope, as Futurist concepts became a source of inspiration for numerous artists, from London to Moscow. Decidedly optimistic about the future, Futurism invented a new relationship between man and the modern world based on unconditional faith in mankind's prospects. By focusing on the Futurist adventure, the Centre Pompidou is realizing its primary ambition: to show how the creative vision of artists shapes the thinking, action and perception of each epoch.