Polyphonic Tides of Revolution: The Futurist Nocturne as a Modernized Portrait

Class of 2006 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities At first glance, the night scenes in the Futurist paintings Streetlight: A Study in Light, by Giacomo Balla, and Forces of the Street, by Umberto Boccioni, seem to have little relation to James Whistler’s Nocturne: Grey and Gold. Yet although the Futurists created their night scenes some 30 years later than Whistler, when we consider the Futurist night scenes as a response to the late 19th century nocturnes of Whistler, we can see the ways in which their creations departed from but also modernized the form of the nocturne in painting. In my paper, I will explore how the Futurist paintings of Balla and Boccioni embody the ideals advocated by the writings of the Futurist movement, which embraced violent progress through machinization and destruction.