Futurism was an artistic movement centered in Italy that emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine, and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life.
Although Facsimile Finder does not typically highlight facsimiles of modern works, we are excited to present you with these stunning facsimiles of books and artworks documenting art and poetry from the Futurism movement, an early twentieth century Italian art movement that aimed to capture the modern world’s dynamism and energy through art.
We find that promoting these is a small pleasurable detour from what we typically offer!
WHAT IS FUTURISM?
- Futurism was first announced on February 20, 1909, when the Paris newspaper Le Figaro published a manifesto by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
- It was an artistic movement centered in Italy that emphasized the dynamism, speed, energy, and power of the machine, and the vitality, change, and restlessness of modern life.
- Marinetti coined the word Futurism to reflect his goal of discarding inherited artistic traditions and celebrating innovation in culture and society.
Futurist painters wanted to depict visually the perception of movement, speed, and change. They adopted Cubist techniques and rhythmic spatial repetitions of an object’s outlines while moving.
During the second decade of the 20th century, the movement’s influence radiated outward across most of Europe, most significantly to the Russian avant-garde. The most-significant results of the movement were in the visual arts and poetry.
THE POEM OF SANSEPOLCRISTI
by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with illustrations by Thayaht and Enrico Prampolini.
This set contains a free metal interpretation of the third Litolatta poem by Domenico Cammarota and Simone Pasquali, meantcelebrate the assembly of San Sepolcro in Milan on March 23, 1919, where the Italian “Fasci di combattimento” political party was founded under the direction of Benito Mussolini.
Excerpt from Domenico Cammarota’s text:
“All collectors of rare bibliographic finds from the 1900s know – at least by reputation – the two famous Futurist litolatte: the” Words in Freedom Olfactory Tactile-Thermal “by FT Marinetti (November 4, 1932), illustrated by Tullio D’Albisola, and “L’Anguria lirica (long passionate poem)” by Tullio D’Albisola himself (August 1934), illustrated by Bruno Munari.
Only a few specialists on the subject, however, remember that at the time a third work was also planned and put in place poetics in litholact, destined to be printed again by the tinsmith industry of Vincenzo Nosenzo in Zinola; the title of this work in progress was “I Sansepolcristi”, a synthetic and free word aeropoem by Marinetti, dedicated to the lyrical exaltation of the sadly famous Gathering of Piazza San Sepolcro (1919), founding of the origins of fascism, in which numerous daring and futurists from all regions of Italy participated.
Interlinked letters between the protagonists of this forgotten project (collected by Danilo Presotto in the “Notebook of Tullio D’Albisola” vol. 3, Savona, Editrice Liguria, 1981), today we can follow step by step the compositional process of this “mysterious” third work in litholact”.
ALPHABET AEROMUSICS IN FREEDOM
By Tullio Crali
Provocative, grandiloquent, disruptive, written, and oral, “parole in libertà” (“words-in-freedom“) was a poetic art form created by Futurism’s founder, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. He combined poetic elements with features characteristic of prose narratives and freely deployed sound, especially onomatopoeia (that is, words that sound in some way similar to the objects or events to which they refer), along with the unconventional use of fonts and characters and other typographic effects. Employing extremely simplified syntax, Marinetti shifts from one idea or image to another, and uses unorthodox and sparse punctuation.
Excerpt from Domenico Cammarota’s text:
“Aeromusiche d’Alfabeto in Libertà is packaged in a volume containing the parolibere tables (“Tavole parolibere futuriste”) painted with brush and tempera colors by Marinetti, Crali, and Raoul Cenisi. The only copy is donated to Marinetti, who unfortunately will not be able to get it published in time from Edizioni ERRE. […]
Between the end of 1984 and the beginning of 1985, the bitter discovery that Crali made when he realized that the copy given to Marinetti was strangely finished in the hands of a well-known Roman antiquarian bookseller, who immediately hastened to resell it to the American collector Mitchell Wolfson Jr .. […] So it was that Crali decided to pack two more virtually identical copies, one for his personal archive, and another then given to the third artist involved in the project, the painter from Gorizia Raoul Cenisi. […] This book-object was then exhibited for the first time as part of the Veneto Futurism exhibition, held in Padua in 1990; and a couple of photos of the panels of the large book in this tione, plus an image of the same specimen exhibited standing enclosed in a glass case, also embellished the exhibition catalog. […] To create this spectacular volume, Crali’s personal specimen was obviously taken into consideration, jealously guarded by the family and generously granted for reproduction.”
ORGANETTO – RAREFACTIONS AND WORDS IN FREEDOM
By Corrado Govoni
In “Rarefazioni” (Rarefactions) Govoni, although linked to Futurism, differs in the unique manner of the stroke and sign. If that of Marinetti and the Futurists is a snappy, aggressive and dynamic style, Govoni’s is instead a childish drawing accompanied by an equally childish writing, which are part of his crepuscular formation. The term “rarefazioni”, which appears in the title of the collection, is an indicative sign of a poetic style that is still focused on the static nature of suspended and somewhat evanescent atmospheres. This is a visual poem, which means that it consists of drawings and captions associated with each drawing.
Excerpt from Domenico Cammarota’s text:
“And here we come to the editorial genesis of this new futurist find presented by the Biblohaus, after the previous spectacular proposals of the third Litolatta by F.T. Marinetti, and of the “Librone” parolibero by Tullio Crali: the reprint in numbered edition of 50 copies, authorized by the heirs of the Govoni family, of Corrado Govoni’s Rarefazioni e Parole in liberty, for the first time published according to the original will of the author , that is in the form known as “Organetto” described in detail by Govoni to his friend Marinetti, in the letter of 11 January 1915 cited above.
In the 15 x 21 cm format, closer to the size of a real accordion, the complete text of the Rarefazioni has been reprinted, obviously with the exclusion of the self-promotional pages where Marinetti inserted the changing organization chart of the Futurist Movement and the updated list of books published by the Futurist Editions of “Poetry”, and this always to respect the precise wishes of Govonian, already expressed in other letters to Marinetti, about not wanting to be cited or grouped in generalized lists whose aims he did not understand, and did not appreciate the forced community.”
ZANG TUMB TUMB (ZANG TUMB TUUUM) – Adrianople, October, 1912
by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
One of the most famous examples of words-in-freedom, Zang Tumb Tumb is Marinetti’s dynamic expression of the siege of the Turkish city of Adrianople (now Edirne) during the Balkan War of 1912, which he reported on as a war correspondent. The title of the book elicits the sights and sounds of mechanized war—artillery shelling, bombs, and explosions.
Excerpt from the text:
“Zang Tumb Tuuum, the book by F.T. Marinetti is the first volume of words in freedom ever, and the forerunner of all the immense word-free, concrete, visual and experimental production of the avant-gardes around the world, but it is also the first example – conceptual and practical – of “book of artist” of the twentieth century, conceived for a diffusion no longer elitist (as happened in the symbolist books), but much more enlarged, influential, and militant.
Zang Tumb Tuuum is therefore an icon book, the first “object volume” not so much for its external appearance, very classic and very different from the subsequent litholatte or the Déperian bolted, but for the internal typographic dress studied together with Cavanna, a craftsman bold printer like the author if not more.
The anastatic reproduction of Zang Tumb Tuuum, masterfully created by Simone Pasquali (worthy heir of the typographer Cesare Cavanna), was made possible by a happy concomitance of intentions, energies and above all funding supported by the Université Côte d’Azur and obtained through the Graduate School “CREATES – Arts et Humanités” to which I belong, as part of a research project entitled RAG – Relire les Avant-gardes (re-reading the avant-gardes). The expression of my gratitude goes to Giacomo Coronelli of the Pontremoli Library in Milan and to Enrico Bittoto, a generous collector, for having made a copy of Zang Tumb Tuuum available for digitization: without their help, this precious anastatic reproduction would not exist. So thanks to them, and heartfelt thanks to Domenico Cammarota for having agreed to write, together with Enrico Bittoto and me, the introductory note.”
To inquire about purchasing any of the books highlighted above, email me at giovanni@facsimilefinder.com with questions and/or for a full quote.