the machine age. Purists maintained that machinery’s clean func-
tional lines and the pure forms of its parts should direct the artist’s
experiments in design, whether in painting, architecture, or indus-
trially produced objects. This “machine aesthetic” inspired Fernand
Léger(1881–1955), a French painter who early on had painted with
the Cubists. He devised an effective compromise of tastes, bringing
together meticulous Cubist analysis of form with Purism’s broad
simplification and machinelike finish of the design components. He
retained from his Cubist practice a preference for cylindrical and
tube-shaped motifs, suggestive ofmachined parts such as pistons
and cylinders.
Léger’s works have the sharp precision of the machine, whose
beauty and quality he was one of the first artists to discover. For ex-
ample, in his film Ballet Mécanique (1924), Léger contrasted inani-
mate objects such as functioning machines with humans in dance-
like variations. Preeminently the painter of modern urban life, Léger
incorporated into his work the massive effects of modern posters
and billboard advertisements, the harsh flashing of electric lights,
the noise of traffic, and the robotic movements of mechanized peo-
ple. These effects appear in The City (FIG. 35-22), an early work
that incorporates the aesthetic of Synthetic Cubism. Its monumental
scale suggests that Léger, had he been given the opportunity, would
have been one of the great mural painters of his age. In a definitive
way, he depicted the mechanical commotion of urban life.Futurism
Artists associated with another major early-20th-century movement,
Futurism,pursued many of the ideas the Cubists explored. Equally im-
portant to the Futurists, however, was their well-defined sociopolitical
agenda. Inaugurated and given its name by the charismatic Italian poet
and playwright Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944) in 1909,
Futurism began as a literary movement but soon encompassed the vi-
sual arts, cinema, theater, music, and architecture. Indignant over the
political and cultural decline of Italy, the Futurists published numerousmanifestos in which they aggressively advocated revolution, both in so-
ciety and in art. Like Die Brücke and other avant-garde artists, the Fu-
turists aimed at ushering in a new, more enlightened era.
In their quest to launch Italian society toward a glorious future,
the Futurists championed war as a means of washing away the stag-
nant past. Indeed, they saw war as a cleansing agent. Marinetti de-
clared: “We will glorify war—the only true hygiene of the world.”^10
The Futurists agitated for the destruction of museums, libraries, and35-22Fernand Léger,
The City,1919. Oil on canvas,
7 7 9 91 – 2 . Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia
(A. E. Gallatin Collection).
Léger was a champion of the
“machine aesthetic.” In The City,
he depicted the mechanical com-
motion of urban life, incorporating
the effects of billboard advertise-
ments, flashing lights, and noisy
traffic.35-23Giacomo Balla,Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash,1912.
Oil on canvas, 2 11 –^38 3 71 – 4 . Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
(bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, gift of George F. Goodyear, 1964).
The Futurists’ interest in motion and in the Cubist dissection of form is
evident in Balla’s painting of a passing dog and its owner. Simultaneity
of views was central to the Futurist program.926 Chapter 35 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1900 TO 19451 ft.1 ft.35-22ALÉGER,
Three Women,
1921.