Futurism and Fascism

Abstract

The article maps the relationship between the Italian Futurist movement and fascism from a general perspective. It deals with the relationship between the leader of Futurism F. T. Marinetti and Benito Mussolini from the beginning of their cooperation in 1915 to the end of the Second World War. Throughout its era, Futurism identified itself with Italy’s social and political climate. Futurism was one of the ideological sources for fascism and it was one of the movements that formed Fasci di Combattimento in 1919. But after Mussolini came to power, fascist cultural politics aesthetically preferred traditionalism, order, and a return to the achievements of history, a contemporary rappel à l’ordre, and Futurism found itself in cultural dissent. Marinetti thus spent the rest of his life trying to improve the position of modernist artists in fascist Italy, which would earn Futurism recognition of the official state art of the fascist regime.