Les mots en liberté futuristes

Artist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Italian, 1876-1944)

Publisher Edizioni Futuriste di "Poesia," Milan, 1919

Printer Stab. Tipografica A. Taveggia, Milan

Author Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (Italian, 1876-1944)

Date1919

Dimensionsbook: 7 9/16 x 5 x 1/4 in. (192 x 127 x 6mm)
page (untrimmed): 7 9/16 x 4 15/16 in. (192 x 126mm)

MediumReproductions: line block reproductions of hand-drawn lettering, plus letterpress prints (expressively set poetry and designs) Text: letterpress on buff laid paper

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMrs. George W. Stevens Fund

Object number

1987.185

Not on View

Label TextFilippo Tommaso Marinetti, Les Mots en Liberté: Futuristes (Words in Liberty: Futurists) (1919) “We say that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty; the beauty of speed... Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.” (Marinetti, 1909) Filippo Tommaso Marinetti—poet, playwright, journalist, and novelist—was the founder and guiding spirit of the Italian Futurist movement. Beginning in 1909, he introduced ideas based on the visualization of speed and innovation in modern technology. His ideas had a profound impact not only on the visual arts, but also on literature and theater. Marinetti developed the concept of parole in libertà (free text), which carried the idea of free verse one step farther. It eliminated any rules regarding spelling, syntax, or typography. Like many artists at that time, Marinetti developed a fascination with the concept of speed, sparked in part by advances in transportation and building construction. He was not interested in the social advances that technology would bring, but with the intoxicating and frightening experience of the power of machines. Using typography alone, Marinetti explodes the norms for book presentation, expressing modernity through a controlled chaos of words, shapes, and images.Published Referencescf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 31Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14-May 11, 2003.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Great War: Art on the Frontline, Jul. 25-Oct. 19, 2014.