Motion and the Futurists: capturing the dynamic sensation

The Italian Futurist painters who were active in the early years of the 20th Century sought to capture in a single image the experience of motion. Could such a project succeed? It might be thought that, insofar as the aim is to depict motion, it is doomed to fail, for (with the possible exception of optical illusions) no static image evokes the experience of movement. But we can discern a number of possible aesthetic projects here, and their chances of success will, in some cases, depend on our favoured account of motion and motion experience. Does Futurism simply reduce the experience of motion to a series of psychological ‘snapshots’, for example? Futurist paintings also provide an intriguing and revelatory case study in which we can examine the nature of depiction, and its connection to artistic realism. We need to supplement accounts of conventional depiction if we are to reconcile the evident non-realist nature of Futurist imagery with the thought that Futurism is somehow true to temporal experience.