One of the greatest European avant-garde movements of the 20th century, Futurism , was born of the article Le futurisme published by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti on the front page of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro on 20th February 1909. The aforesaid article - which at different times has been studied and explained in many different ways - was, albeit written in a lyrical, fiery and unusual style, first and foremost, a manifesto for a programme. It was the first of a long series of Futurist manifestos addressing the most diverse topics, and very shortly spread everywhere, giving rise to disputes and arousing support.
Thus Marinetti, a thirty-three-years-old publisher of the magazine Poesia in Milan, who enjoyed enviable friendships in Parisian literary society, became the leader of a cultural movement that, to different degrees, influenced and produced radical innovations - harshly criticized at their unveiling - not only in the visual arts and literary field, but also in architecture with Sant'Elia, in theatre, music, publishing, graphic design, dance, fashion and, with a certain degree of irony, even in cooking.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti - one of the most famous Italians of the last century - led Futurism for thirty-five years, always interpreting its phases with his original passion, and died in 1944 at the age of sixty-eight. (Scholars conventionally date the Futurist period as running from 1909, the year its first manifesto was published, to 1944, the year of the poet's death).
Around the world, Futurism is particularly known for the painting and sculpture it was able to generate (or to influence in Russia, France, Britain and Japan). This was in part the result of the mass of information which accompanied the great exhibitions and the news concerning the prices of Futurist works of art, especially those of the period 1910-1919, produced by artists who signed the first Manifesto of Futurist Paintings: Boccioni, Balla, Carrà, Russolo and Severini. As is well known, a work by the painter and sculptor Umberto Boccioni, who died aged thirty-four during the First World War, can be found on the national side of the Italian 20 euro-cent coin: it is called "Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio" ovvero "il camminatore".

However, even the second phase of artistic Futurism - running from the early Twenties to the early Forties - is increasingly studied and increasingly reveals its importance. Some of the Futurist poets of the period appear in the most authoritative anthologies, like those of Sanguineti and Segre. In terms of visual arts, it is evident that the so called "second Futurism" was able to express the "Marconian" modernity of those decades, producing artists who were also theoreticians of their works such as Prampolini and Fillia, or were trendsetters like Gerardo Dottori.
Moreover, no other Italian cultural movement, nor any other modern Italian artistic expression, can, around the world, boast of a bibliography like Futurism's: a bibliography that is still growing, and which is now receiving a boost from the one hundredth anniversary of the first manifesto in 1909.