Discussion 2 This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their ‘avant-garde’ practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists’ disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an ‘art of modern life’ will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and ‘avant-garde’ utopias.

Mary-Ann Caws, Manifesting A look at a selection of visual manifestos, in their relation to verbal ones—what sorts of crossover features might we determine (or invent), with our post-event imaginations running high, as in the original big and loud futurist ones? A quick dada/surrealist spin will be put on the whole thing, with additional thoughts after the Venice Biennale sneaking in.Suggested Further Reading:Mary Ann Caws, ed.

Discussion 1 This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their ‘avant-garde’ practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists’ disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an ‘art of modern life’ will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and ‘avant-garde’ utopias.

Matthew Gale and Gill Perry, ‘The raging broom of madness’: making an exhibition of Futurism  The presentation covers some of the ideas, issues and decisions that went into making Futurism at Tate Modern. It covers a range from conception to installation, including such concerns as how to present the manifestos and what happened to Balla's dog?

Gill Perry and Dominic Willsdon​, Introduction This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their 'avant-garde' practices.

Gender, Matisse and the Fauves, Gill Perry  Gill Perry explores the relationship between the work of Matisse and the Fauve avant-garde, and that of several women artists working and exhibiting on the fringes of the movement. She focuses on issues of spectatorship and ideas of avant-gardism, and goes on to consider the role of gender in both contemporary and modern perceptions of Fauve practice.

Mike Belshaw, Matisse and Picasso: Painting the Studio  Mike Belshaw focuses on Matisse and Picasso's studios, specifically their paintings of studios. He discusses the effects of paintings within paintings in such works and the extent to which the spectator's view can also be the artist's.