Page 51 - Studio International - March 1973

Supplement No zang business of the relationship between Marinetti
and Mussolini. It is certainly true that Mussolini
Marinetti: Selected Writings edited by
R. W. Flint, translated by Arthur A. Coppotelli. used Futurism, both its techniques of crowd-
Spring 1973: 366pp, 22 black and white illustrations. Secker stirring and its incendiary use of language.
new and and Warburg. £5. What Flint fails to make clear is the reason for
Boccioni's 'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space'
Marinetti's break with the wily Duce in 1921.
recent art books by John Golding. 32 pp, 11 black and white He ascribes it to Marinetti's unwillingness to
illustrations. Obtainable from the Registrar,
accept Fascism's courting of financial backing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne. £1. from bankers and industrialists. That is only a
small part of it. Far more significant, as an
'One wonders what it is in modern Italian illustration of where both men stood, was
politics that generates such blithe nonsense in Marinetti's idealist, and perhaps naive, refusal
the minds of foreigners.' So comments to go along with Mussolini's vote-catching
R. W. Flint in his introduction to his selection of acceptance of the monarchy and the Vatican.
writing by F. T. Marinetti. He is referring to The expulsion of these had formed an important
Wyndham Lewis's bombastic over- part of the futurist programme, and were the
simplification in 'Blasting and Bombardiering' : major cause of the rift.
'Marinetti, for instance. You may have heard of Marinetti's written output was vast, running
him. It was he who put Mussolini up to from his tentative early years as a French
Fascism. Mussolini admits it. They ran neck symbolist, through the period when he was
and neck for a bit, but Mussolini was the better introducing the poetry of the 'maudits' to
politician.' Decades later, and with a clearer Italian readers with his magazine Poesia. Then
perspective on the ideological complexities of on through the high days of futurist activity,
those years, it has to be admitted that a fair the tireless manifesto writing, the high-flown
amount of that blithe nonsense is still around. yet punchy language that he felt was the only
And some of it has rubbed off on R. W. Flint. way to get through to the four-fifths of
It all starts promisingly: 'No dossier on Lacerba readers who were factory workers not
revolution in the arts, or even on revolution in intellectuals — language that is habitually
general would be complete without a selection labelled 'crude' by literary pundits, but not by
from the works of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Flint. After that, the periods of second and
1876-1944, the founder, promoter, Maecenas, third Futurism, its claws drawn except for odd
and all-round demiurge of the Italian futurist flashes of the old spirit: radio art and
movement.' That Marinetti was indeed a `aeropittura'. These, inexplicably, are omitted
revolutionary is an opinion shared by others, and from this selection, though over a hundred
could be backed by correspondence by pages of the ranting 'Great Milan' find space.
Lunacharsky from the II International, But the most amazing omission of all, and
Gramsci and Mayakovsky. Strange then that this one which completely cripples the creative side
volume excludes the most revolutionary of of this puzzling character, is the absence of
Marinetti's writings, among them the Marinetti's 'parole in libertà.' (words in
'Manifesto of the Futurist Political Party', and freedom). The manifesto of 19I3: 'Destruction
most of 'Futurist Democracy'. It doesn't help of Syntax — Untrammelled Imagination —
that the sections of the latter that are included Words in Freedom' is missing. Without this,
are mingled with bits of War, sole hygiene of and texts like 'Zang Tumb Tumb' and '8 Souls
the world'. in a Bomb', the reader has little chance of
Neither is there much illumination on that grasping the essence of what Marinetti was

Buchhandlung Walther König Books on art 5 Köln 1 Breitstrasse 93
Art around 1970—Collection Ludwig vol. II. 428 p., over 250 colour plates, 8to., 1972 DM 34, - -
also available : Art of the sixties. 5th revised edition.
Becher, B. und H., Anonyme Skulpturen. A typology of technical constructions. 200 photos, 4to. DM 48, - -
Beuys, Joseph, Zeichnungen 1949-1969,57 plates, 4to., edition of 500 signed copies DM 38, - -

Copley, William, Notes on a project for a dictionary of ridiculous images. 242 p., 120 full pages drawings,
—Series "Zeichnungen " 3, Verlag Gebr. König, Köln-New York 1972 DM 34, - -
de luxe edition : 12 numbered and signed copies with two original drawings DM, 550, - -
In the same series: 1 Stanley Brouwn
2 Gunther Brus
4 Bruce Naumann
In preparation :
Filliou, Robert, ed. with John Cage, Diter Rot, Joseph Beuys, a.o. : Teaching and learning as performing
arts, 230 p., 14 plates, Engl./German ed., 4to. DM 25, - -

Catalogues free: No. 9 "Filmliterature" No. 10 "documenta 5 " over 3000 No.

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