Futurism

I have a suspicion that my taste in art is changing again. Whereas in my teens I liked the Pre-Raphaelites, now they make me feel queasy. I don't think I'll ever like much contemporary art, but I'm definitely starting to warm to early 20th century modernism. In one respect Futurism follows on quite nicely from the Italian Divisionists exhibition at the National Gallery last year. In fact, I'm certain that a couple of the paintings appeared there too. Not that it just focuses on the Italians. The most interesting aspect of the exhibition is that it shows how Futurism interacted with/influenced other movements in Europe (Cubism, Orphism, Cubo-Futurism and Vorticisim) The different groups could never be mistaken for each other. The distance and abstraction of the British Vorticists contrasts with the liveliness and movement of the Russian Cubo-Futurists and the amazingly vibrant colours of both that group and Orphism in France. Boccioni is probably my favourite of the Italians, although I also found the work of Carra and Severini rather appealing. Elsewhere it's a role-call of famous names: Picasso, Malevich, Popova, Braque, Delauney, Duchamp et al. In all, a surprisingly wonderful exhibition - even if the politics are still loathsome...