MARINETTI, Filippo Tommaso

The founder of Italian Futurism, Marinetti wanted to be known as a poet and playwright; he is remembered mostly as a reportedly personable publicist who authored some of the strongest sentences advocating alternative art: Literature having up to now glorified thoughtful immobility, ecstasy, and slumber, we wish to exalt the aggressive moment, the feverish insomnia, running, the perilous leap, the cuff, and the blow. The principal effect of Marinetti's rhetoric was making a few good artists famous—Giacomo...