Ego-Futurism

Russian literary movement of the 1910s

For other uses, see Futurism (disambiguation).

Association of Ego-Futurism areopagus, during its second phase. Seated: Ivan Ignatiev. Standing: Dmitri Kryuchkov, Vasilisk Gnedov, and Pavel Shirokov.

Ego-Futurism was a Russian literary movement of the 1910s, developed within Russian Futurism by Igor Severyanin and his early followers. While part of the Russian Futurism movement, it was distinguished from the Moscow-based cubo-futurists as it was associated with poets and artists active in Saint Petersburg.[1]

## Background

[edit]

In 1909, the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti began the Futurist movement by publishing the Manifesto of Futurism; it called for a total break with the past, in favour of a completely modern world.[2] Very quickly he gained numerous followers, such as the painter Umberto Boccioni, and the musician Luigi Russolo. In 1910, Marinetti went to Russia to lecture on his ideas; it was this year that one of the earliest Russian Futurist groups began: led by David and Wladimir Burliuk, it was called 'Hylea', and its members included poets who would later become Cubo-Futurists, the rivals of the Ego-Futurists.[3]

Igor Severyanin, the founder of Ego-Futurism, was already a poet, writing under the influence of two Russian Impressionist poets, Konstantin Fofanov and Mirra Lokhvitskaya.[4] His Futurist ideas were developing in 1910, and by the next year he was ready.

## History

[edit]

### Early years

[edit]

Ego-Futurism was born in either the summer of[5] or in November[6] that year, when Severyanin published a small brochure titled Prolog (Ego-Futurism). The first Ego-Futurist publication, it insulted contemporary verse, declared that poetry would soon have to undergo a complete transformation to suit modernity, and claimed that he himself was already famous throughout Russia.[6] Although a group of four Ego-Futurist poets calling themselves the 'Ego-group' had already been formed that October, they only issued their manifesto after Prolog was published, and began their activities in January the following year.[6]

The four original members – Severyanin, Konstantin Olimpov (Fofanov's son), Georgy Ivanov, and Graal Arelsky – then issued a manifesto illustrating their intentions, now calling themselves the 'Academy of Ego-Poetry'.[7] The group began to hold loud public events to gain publicity, but little information is available related to these.[8] The ideology of Ego-Futurism has been described as founded on a personality cult and the poet's abhorrence of the crowd.[9]

In November 1912, after an argument with Olimpov and a new member, the poet Ivan Ignatiev, Severyanin officially left the group; nonetheless, he still identified himself as an Ego-Futurist, and continued to publish in their almanacs.[8] Ignatiev took charge of the group, and in the January 1913 manifesto signed by himself and several new members, he renamed the academy to its present name.[8] One of the most notable poets from the second phase of Ego-Futurism was Vasilisk Gnedov; in 1913, he would publish a book of poems, where the quantities of words used would diminish, and end with the phrase The Poem of the End printed on an otherwise-blank page. He was stylistically the closest to the Cubo-Futurists.

### Peak of influence

[edit]

By 1913, groups inspired by Ego-Futurism began to appear, for example the 'Mezzanine of Poetry', a group founded by Vadim Shershenevich. It was dissolved by 1914, and Shershenevich joined the Cubo-Futurists.[10]

From the beginning, there were several differences between the Cubo-Futurism and Ego-Futurism; for example, in their almanacs, they published Symbolist poetry alongside their own, whilst the Cubo-Futurist poets completely rejected the past,[8] going so far as to declare that famous authors, for example Fyodor Dostoevsky, had to be "pushed off the steamboat of modernity"[11] immediately. Severyanin also decried excessive objectivity of the Cubo-Futurists, advocating a more subjective attitude. Although other Russian Futurists dismissed the Ego-Futurists as puerile and vulgar, Severyanin argued that his advancement of outspoken sensuality, neologisms and ostentatious selfishness qualifies as futurism.

Despite their differences, the group briefly united in 1914; unfortunately for the project, Shershenevich was involved,[8] and he took advantage of a group tour to publish, in the group journal, an attack against the Ego-Futurists and a Moscow Futurist group, 'Centrifuge'. Boris Pasternak, a member of Centrifuge, retorted with a satirical article against him,[10] leading to a verbal battle between certain members of the groups for recognition as the first, truest Futurists.

In 1913–14, the Cubo-Futurist poets Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasilly Kamensky, and David Burliuk decided to tour Russia with poetry recitals. Severyanin occasionally joined in, but it was during this time that the collaboration ended, due to an argument with Burliuk and Mayakovsky.[12]

### Decline

[edit]

The movement had begun to fall apart when Severyanin officially abandoned the group to begin his solo career in 1912, and was finished by 1916.

## Legacy

[edit]

The Ego-Futurists significantly influenced the Imaginists of the 1920s.

## Poets related to Ego-Futurism

[edit]

* Sergey Alymov
* Graal Arelsky
* Vadim Bayan
* Vasilisk Gnedov
* Boris Gusman
* Georgy Ivanov
* Ivan Ignatiev
* Pavel Kokorin
* Ivan Lukash
* Igor Severyanin
* Peter Larionov
* Dmitri Kryuchkov
* Konstantin Olimpov
* Rurik Ivnev
* Vadim Shershenevich
* Georgy Shengeli
* Pavel Shirokov
* Lev Zak

## See also

[edit]

* Velimir Khlebnikov
* Zaum
* Zangesi
* Cubo-Futurism
* Futurism
* Dada

## References

[edit]

* Russkiy futurizm. Teoriya. Praktika. Kritika. Vospominaniya. ('Russian Futurism. Theory. Practice. Criticism. Memoir.'). Moscow, 1999.
* Petrova, E. (2000) Russkiy futurizm ('Russian Futurism'). SPb., 2000

1. ^ Freeman, Sara (2020). Theatre History Studies 2019. University of Alabama Press. p. 65\. ISBN 978-0-8173-7113-5.
2. ^ Milwaukee Art Museum; Schulze, Franz (2001). Building a Masterpiece: Milwaukee Art Museum. Hudson Hills Press. p. 190\. ISBN 978-1-55595-201-3.
3. ^ Brooker, Peter; Thacker, Andrew (2009). The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1299\. ISBN 978-0-19-968130-3.
4. ^ Markov, Vladimir. Russian Futurism: a History. University of California Press. p. 62.
5. ^ "Ego-Futurism". Monoskop. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
6. ^ a b c Markov, Vladimir. Russian Futurism: a History. University of California Press. p. 64.
7. ^ Lauwers, Lenie (1994). Igor' Severjanin - his Life and Work - the Formal Aspects of his Poetry. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters. p. 14.
8. ^ a b c d e Handbook of International Futurism. De Gruyter. pp. 780–5.
9. ^ Lapidus, Rina (2013). Jewish Women Writers in the Soviet Union. Oxon: Routledge. p. 13\. ISBN 978-0-415-61762-8.
10. ^ a b Barnes, Christopher (2004). Boris Pasternak: a Literary Biography (Volume 1). Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–6.
11. ^ Burliuk, David; Burliuk, Vladimir; Mayakovsky, Vladimir; Kruchonykh, Alexei; Livshits, Benedikt; (signatories of the manifesto) (1912). A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. Moscow.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
12. ^ Leach, Robert. Russian Futurist Theatre: Theory and Practice. Edinburgh University Press. p. 42.

* v
* t
* e

Futurism

Italian Futurists|

* Giacomo Balla (list of works)
* "Barbara"
* Umberto Boccioni
* Anton Bragaglia
* Benedetta Cappa
* Carlo Carrà
* Franco Casavola
* Nikolay Diulgheroff
* Luigi De Giudici
* F. T. Marinetti
* Marisa Mori
* Bruno Munari
* Aldo Palazzeschi
* Ugo Piatti
* Francesco Balilla Pratella
* Antonio Russolo
* Luigi Russolo
* Antonio Sant'Elia
* Gino Severini
* Ardengo Soffici

Ego-Futurists|

* Graal Arelsky
* Vasilisk Gnedov
* Boris Gusman
* Georgy Ivanov
* Igor Severyanin
* Dmitri Kryuchkov
* Konstantin Olimpov
* Rurik Ivnev
* Pavel Shirokov

Russian Futurists and
Cubo-Futurists|

* Alexander Archipenko
* Nikolai Aseev
* Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine
* Lilya Brik
* Osip Brik
* Alexander Bogomazov
* Kseniya Boguslavskaya
* David Burliuk
* Vladimir Burliuk
* Joseph Chaikov
* Aleksandra Ekster
* Nina Genke-Meller
* Natalia Goncharova
* Elena Guro
* Vasily Kamensky
* Velimir Khlebnikov
* Ivan Kliun
* Aleksei Kruchyonykh
* Nikolai Kulbin
* Mikhail Larionov
* Aristarkh Lentulov
* El Lissitzky
* Benedikt Livshits
* Kazimir Malevich
* Mikhail Matyushin
* Vladimir Mayakovsky
* Boris Pasternak
* Victor Palmov
* Lyubov Popova
* Ivan Puni
* Olga Rozanova
* Vadim Shershenevich
* Nadezhda Udaltsova
* Ilia Zdanevich (Iliazd)

Aeropittura|

* Giacomo Balla
* "Barbara"
* Benedetta Cappa
* Giuseppe Caselli
* Tullio Crali
* Fortunato Depero
* Gerardo Dottori
* Fillìa
* Sante Monachesi
* Marisa Mori
* Enrico Prampolini

Other Futurists|

* Alice Bailly
* Mina Loy
* Almada Negreiros
* C. R. W. Nevinson
* Emilio Pettoruti
* Valentine de Saint-Point
* Jules Schmalzigaug
* Mykhaylo Semenko
* Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso
* Frances Simpson Stevens
* Mary Swanzy
* Růžena Zátková

Techniques, sub-genres
and inventions|

* Anti-neutral suit
* Intonarumori
* Italian futurism in cinema
* Futurist architecture
* Futurist cooking
* Futurist literature
* Futurist music
* Noise music
* Zaum

Selected output|

* Abstract Speed + Sound
* Antigrazioso
* The Art of Noises
* BÏF§ZF+18
* The City Rises
* Cyclist
* Development of a Bottle in Space
* Drama in the Futurists' Cabaret No. 13
* Dyr bul shchyl
* Dynamism of a Car
* Dynamism of a Cyclist
* Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
* Dynamism of a Human Body: Boxer
* Dynamism of a Soccer Player
* Dynamism of a Speeding Horse + Houses
* Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto
* The Knifegrinder
* Girl Running on a Balcony
* The Hand of the Violinist
* Lacerba
* Man of Smoke
* Manifesto of Futurism
* Manifesto of Futurist Musicians
* Mercury Passing Before the Sun
* The Poem of the End
* Poesia
* The Street Enters the House
* The Street Light
* Thaïs
* Tango with Cows
* Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
* Universal War
* Victory over the Sun
* Vladimir Mayakovsky
* Zangezi
* Zang Tumb Tumb

Associated people|

* Luisa, Marchesa Casati
* Gabriele D'Annunzio
* Sergei Diaghilev
* Benito Mussolini
* Wyndham Lewis
* Léonide Massine
* Igor Stravinsky

Groups influenced|

* Agitprop
* Agit-train
* Constructivism
* Dadaism
* Donkey's Tail
* Grosvenor School
* Jack of Diamonds
* Neo-Primitivism
* Oberiu
* Panfuturism
* Precisionism
* Rayonism
* Soyuz Molodyozhi
* Suprematism
* Supremus
* Vorticism

See also|

* 0,10 Exhibition
* 5×5=25
* Cubism
* Divisionism
* Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
* Le Chahut
* Pointillism
* Primitivism
* Robert René Meyer-Sée
* Russian avant-garde
* Russian Ballet
* Sackville Gallery
* Ukrainian avant-garde
* Verbovka Village Folk Centre
* Zveno (art)

* v
* t
* e

Schools of poetry

* Acmeism
* Akhmatova's Orphans
* Angry Penguins
* Auden Group
* The Beats
* Black Arts Movement
* Black Mountain poets
* British Poetry Revival
* Cairo poets
* Castalian Band
* Cavalier poets
* Chhayavaad
* Churchyard poets
* Conceptismo
* Confessionalists
* Créolité
* Cubo-Futurism
* Culteranismo
* Cyclic Poets
* Dada
* Deep image
* Della Cruscans
* Dolce Stil Novo
* Dymock poets
* Ecopoetry
* Ego-Futurism
* The poets of Elan
* Flarf
* Fugitives
* Garip
* Gay Saber
* Generation of '27
* Generation of the '30s
* Generation of '98
* Georgian poets
* Goliard
* The Group
* Harlem Renaissance
* Harvard Aesthetes
* Hungry generation
* Imaginism
* Imagism
* Informationist poetry
* İkinci Yeni
* Jindyworobaks
* Lake Poets
* Language poets
* Marinism
* Martian poetry
* Metaphysical poets
* Misty Poets
* Modernist poetry
* The Movement
* Négritude
* Neotericism
* New American Poetry
* New Apocalyptics
* New Formalism
* New York School
* Oberiu
* Objectivists
* Others
* Parnassian poets
* La Pléiade
* Précieuses
* Rhymers' Club
* San Francisco Renaissance
* Scottish Renaissance
* Sicilian School
* Sons of Ben
* Southern Agrarians
* Spasmodic poets
* Sung poetry
* Surrealism
* Symbolism
* Uranian poetry
* Zutiste

Poetry portal

* v
* t
* e

Russian art and literary movements

* Abramtsevo Colony
* Acmeist poetry
* Russian avant-garde
* Second Russian avant-garde
* Conceptualism
* Constructivism
* The Five
* Russian Futurism
* Cubo-Futurism
* Ego-Futurism
* Zaum
* Imaginism
* Lieutenant prose
* Metarealism
* Mir iskusstva
* Natural school
* New peasant poets
* Oberiu
* Peredvizhniki
* Rayonism
* Russian postmodernism
* Russian symbolism
* Socialist realism
* Soviet nonconformism
* Stroganov school
* Suprematism
* Village prose

* v
* t
* e

Modernism

Movements|

* Acmeism
* Art Deco
* Art Nouveau
* Ashcan School
* Constructivism
* Cubism
* Dada
* Expressionism
* Der Blaue Reiter
* Die Brücke
* Music
* Fauvism
* Functionalism
* Bauhaus
* Futurism
* Imagism
* Lettrism
* Neoplasticism
* De Stijl
* Orphism
* Surrealism
* Symbolism
* Synchromism
* Tonalism

Literary arts|

| Literature|

* Apollinaire
* Barnes
* Beckett
* Bely
* Breton
* Broch
* Bulgakov
* Chekhov
* Conrad
* Döblin
* Forster
* Faulkner
* Flaubert
* Ford
* Gide
* Hamsun
* Hašek
* Hemingway
* Hesse
* Joyce
* Kafka
* Koestler
* Lawrence
* Mann
* Mansfield
* Marinetti
* Musil
* Dos Passos
* Platonov
* Porter
* Proust
* Stein
* Svevo
* Unamuno
* Woolf

|

Poetry|

* Akhmatova
* Aldington
* Auden
* Cendrars
* Crane
* H.D.
* Desnos
* Eliot
* Éluard
* Elytis
* George
* Jacob
* Lorca
* Lowell (Amy)
* Lowell (Robert)
* Mallarmé
* Moore
* Owen
* Pessoa
* Pound
* Rilke
* Seferis
* Stevens
* Thomas
* Tzara
* Valéry
* Williams
* Yeats

Works|

* In Search of Lost Time (1913–1927)
* The Metamorphosis (1915)
* Ulysses (1922)
* The Waste Land (1922)
* The Magic Mountain (1924)
* Mrs Dalloway (1925)
* The Sun Also Rises (1926)
* The Master and Margarita (1928–1940)
* The Sound and the Fury (1929)

Visual arts|

| Painting|

* Albers
* Arp
* Balthus
* Bellows
* Boccioni
* Bonnard
* Brâncuși
* Braque
* Calder
* Cassatt
* Cézanne
* Chagall
* Chirico
* Claudel
* Dalí
* Degas
* Delaunay
* Delaunay
* Demuth
* Dix
* Doesburg
* Duchamp
* Dufy
* Ensor
* Ernst
* Gauguin
* Giacometti
* Goncharova
* Gris
* Grosz
* Höch
* Hopper
* Kahlo
* Kandinsky
* Kirchner
* Klee
* Kokoschka
* Kooning
* Lawrence
* Léger
* Magritte
* Malevich
* Manet
* Marc
* Matisse
* Metzinger
* Miró
* Modigliani
* Mondrian
* Monet
* Moore
* Munch
* Nolde
* O'Keeffe
* Picabia
* Picasso
* Pissarro
* Ray
* Redon
* Renoir
* Rodin
* Rousseau
* Schiele
* Seurat
* Signac
* Sisley
* Soutine
* Steichen
* Stieglitz
* Toulouse-Lautrec
* Van Gogh
* Vuillard
* Wood

|

Film|

* Akerman
* Aldrich
* Antonioni
* Avery
* Bergman
* Bresson
* Buñuel
* Carné
* Cassavetes
* Chaplin
* Clair
* Cocteau
* Dassin
* Deren
* Dovzhenko
* Dreyer
* Edwards
* Eisenstein
* Epstein
* Fassbinder
* Fellini
* Flaherty
* Ford
* Fuller
* Gance
* Godard
* Hitchcock
* Hubley
* Jones
* Keaton
* Kubrick
* Kuleshov
* Kurosawa
* Lang
* Losey
* Lupino
* Lye
* Marker
* Minnelli
* Murnau
* Ozu
* Pabst
* Pudovkin
* Ray (Nicholas)
* Ray (Satyajit)
* Resnais
* Renoir
* Richardson
* Rossellini
* Sirk
* Sjöström
* Sternberg
* Tarkovsky
* Tati
* Trnka
* Truffaut
* Varda
* Vertov
* Vigo
* Welles
* Wiene
* Wood

Architecture|

* Breuer
* Bunshaft
* Gaudí
* Gropius
* Guimard
* Horta
* Hundertwasser
* Johnson
* Kahn
* Le Corbusier
* Loos
* Melnikov
* Mendelsohn
* Mies
* Nervi
* Neutra
* Niemeyer
* Rietveld
* Saarinen
* Steiner
* Sullivan
* Tatlin
* Wright

Works|

* A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1886)
* Mont Sainte-Victoir (1887)
* The Starry Night (1889)
* Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
* The Dance (1909–1910)
* Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912)
* Black Square (1915)
* The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
* Ballet Mécanique (1923)
* Battleship Potemkin (1925)
* Metropolis (1927)
* Un Chien Andalou (1929)
* Villa Savoye (1931)
* Fallingwater (1936)
* Citizen Kane (1941)
* Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Performing
arts|

| Music|

* Antheil
* Bartók
* Berg
* Berio
* Boulanger
* Boulez
* Copland
* Debussy
* Dutilleux
* Falla
* Feldman
* Górecki
* Hindemith
* Honegger
* Ives
* Janáček
* Ligeti
* Lutosławski
* Milhaud
* Nono
* Partch
* Russolo
* Satie
* Schaeffer
* Schoenberg
* Scriabin
* Stockhausen
* Strauss
* Stravinsky
* Szymanowski
* Varèse
* Villa-Lobos
* Webern
* Weill

|

Theatre|

* Anderson
* Anouilh
* Artaud
* Beckett
* Brecht
* Chekhov
* Ibsen
* Jarry
* Kaiser
* Maeterlinck
* Mayakovsky
* O'Casey
* O'Neill
* Osborne
* Pirandello
* Piscator
* Strindberg
* Toller
* Wedekind
* Wilder
* Witkiewicz

Dance|

* Balanchine
* Cunningham
* Diaghilev
* Duncan
* Fokine
* Fuller
* Graham
* Holm
* Laban
* Massine
* Nijinsky
* Shawn
* Sokolow
* St. Denis
* Tamiris
* Wiesenthal
* Wigman

Works|

* Don Juan (1888)
* Ubu Roi (1896)
* Verklärte Nacht (1899)
* Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
* Salome (1905)
* The Firebird (1910)
* Afternoon of a Faun (1912)
* The Rite of Spring (1913)
* Fountain (1917)
* Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921)
* The Threepenny Opera (1928)
* Waiting for Godot (1953)

Related|

* American modernism
* Armory Show
* Avant-garde
* Ballets Russes
* Bloomsbury Group
* Buddhist modernism
* Classical Hollywood cinema
* Degenerate art
* Ecomodernism
* Experimental film
* Film noir
* Fin de siècle
* Fourth dimension in art
* Fourth dimension in literature
* Grosvenor School of Modern Art
* Hanshinkan Modernism
* High modernism
* Hippie modernism
* Impressionism
* Music
* Literature
* Post-
* Incoherents
* International Style
* Late modernism
* Late modernity
* List of art movements
* List of avant-garde artists
* List of modernist poets
* Maximalism
* Metamodernism
* Modernity
* Neo-primitivism
* Neo-romanticism
* New Hollywood
* New Objectivity
* Poetic realism
* Pop Art
* Pulp noir
* Reactionary modernism
* Remodernism
* Second Viennese School
* Structural film
* Underground film
* Vulgar modernism

← Romanticism

Postmodernism →

Category

* v
* t
* e

Avant-garde movements

Visual art|

* Abstract expressionism
* Art Nouveau
* Art & Language
* Conceptual art
* Constructivism
* Proto-Cubism
* Cubism
* Functionalism
* Bauhaus
* Grosvenor School
* Devětsil
* Divisionism
* Fauvism
* Impressionism
* Neo-Impressionism
* Post-Impressionism
* Color Field
* Incoherents
* Lyrical Abstraction
* Mail art
* Minimalism
* Mir iskusstva
* Multidimensional art
* Neoplasticism
* De Stijl
* Neue Slowenische Kunst
* Nonconformism
* Nouveau réalisme
* Orphism
* Performance art
* Pop art
* Process art
* Purism
* Rayonism
* Suprematism
* Temporary art
* Vorticism

Literature
and poetry|

* Acmeism
* Angry Penguins
* Asemic writing
* Conceptual poetry
* Cyberpunk
* Ego-Futurism
* Experimental literature
* Flarf poetry
* Hungry generation
* Imaginism
* Imagism
* Language poets
* Neoavanguardia
* Neoteric
* Nouveau roman
* Oberiu
* Oulipo
* Slam poetry
* Ultraísmo
* Visual poetry
* Zaum

Music|

| By style|

* Funk
* Jazz
* Free funk
* Yass
* Pop
* Rock
* Prog
* Punk
* Metal

|

Others|

* Aleatoric music
* Ars nova
* Ars subtilior
* Atonal music
* Electroacoustic music
* Electronic music
* Industrial music
* Experimental pop
* Free jazz
* Free improvisation
* Futurism
* Microtonal music
* Minimal music
* Drone music
* Music theatre
* Musique concrète
* New Complexity
* No wave
* Noise music
* Post-rock
* Rock in Opposition
* Second Viennese School
* Serialism
* Spectral music
* Stochastic music
* Textural music
* Totalism
* Twelve-tone technique

Cinema
and theatre|

* Cinéma pur
* Dogme 95
* Drop Art
* Epic theatre
* Experimental film
* Experimental theatre
* Modernist film
* Poetic realism
* Postdramatic theatre
* Remodernist film
* Structural film
* Theatre of the Absurd
* Theatre of Cruelty

General|

* Constructivism
* Dada
* Expressionism
* Fluxus
* Futurism
* Russian Futurism
* Cubo-Futurism
* Lettrism
* Modernism
* Minimalism
* Postminimalism
* Neo-minimalism
* Neo-Dada
* Neoism
* Postmodernism
* Postmodernist film
* Late modernism
* Primitivism
* Situationist International
* Social realism
* Socialist realism
* Surrealism
* Symbolism
* Russian symbolism

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template