Art Blogging: Luigi Russolo

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) was an Italian Futurist painter. Futurism was an early 20th Century artistic movement centered in Italy which explicitly rejected tradition or the past as a source of anything valuable for future generations. Within Italy, Futurism was closely associated with nationalism and glorified violence, technology, and political radicalism. Russolo was among the founding members of this movement.
Dynamism of a Train, 1912.
Memory of a Night, 1912.







Music, 1911. In addition to painting, Russolo was renowned as an experimental musician. In his treatise The Art of Noise, Russolo argued that modern people have come to accept the sounds of the industrial city as normal, and music should adopt those sounds thought to be as noises. Here is a performance of one of his compositions:

[Video Link]