A movement driven by cars

Last Updated: 2:06am BST 10/05/2007

Futurism began in Italy at the turn of the 20th century but later spread to the rest of Europe. Aesthetically, it drew from the French cubists and promoted the values of technology and constant motion. Futurists worshipped cars, planes and factories as symbols of man's triumph over nature. The movement grew out of a dismay with Italy's sluggish bureaucracy and corrupt government. Some writers have dryly noted that its current popularity is due to lack of progress on those fronts. advertisement <A HREF="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/event.ng/Type%3dclick%26FlightID%3d19166%26AdID%3d23311%26TargetID%3d5006%26Redirect%3dhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?menuId=242&menuItemId=-1&view=SUMMARY&grid=F2&siteId=1&targetRule=2" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/b/ba/clubworld/ba_bustv_mpu_1.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A> Futurism instinctively supported Fascism in the hope of modernising the country. The Futurist Political Party was absorbed into Mussolini's Fascist Party in 1919. However, the movement's founder, Filippo Marinetti, later turned against Il Duce, who he described as "reactionary" because of his passion for Italy's imperial past and his projects to revive farming.

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