revolution

I enjoyed “Futurism and the Revolutionary State” the most out of the readings so far because I found the relationship between the “revolutionary” artists and the “revolutionary” political figures to be very insightful. The wide gap between the perspectives of the politicians and the artists on the idea of revolution was fascinating. Occurring simultaneously with the Bolshevik Revolution, a lot of artists seemed to adopt the idea that their art and poetry was a driving force behind the ongoing revolution. They adamantly believed that they “will agitate the masses with our art”. As it turned out however, “the more the futurists tried to prove their revolutionary credentials through manifestos and propaganda art, the more they collided with the manifestos and propaganda controlled by the state”. So, where Marinetti slipped by with his manifestos in fascist Italy, the Russian Futurists were unable because they agitated and challenged the highly revered manifestos of Marx and Lenin. Thus, in the end, the political greats triumphed. Their revolutionary influences outweighed those of the artists. For that reason it was observed that, “the place of art is in the rear of historic advance”.