MARINETTI, F.T. (1876-1944)

Published in Les mots en liberté futuristes (Milan, 1919). ""A Tumultuous Assembly: Numerical Sensibility is an example of tavole parolibere (free-word pictures). In this print, the subject of which is Italy's victory in World War I, Marinetti drew from visual collage and parole in libertà (words-in-freedom) and eschewed regulations of grammar and syntax to create a work that can be interpreted both visually and aurally. A Tumultuous Assembly: Numerical Sensibility liberates numbers, signs, letters, and images from their functional responsibilities, exaggerates forms, and juxtaposes diverse elements, thereby producing unexpected associations. The Futurists celebrated the potential of war, drawing analogies between weaponry, such as torpedoes and bombs, and Futurist poetry. Here, Marinetti combined innovative typography, found elements (such as the image of the drummer boy on the left and the strips of letters and numbers throughout the composition), and dramatic variations in scale to create a dynamic composition representing a celebrating crowd"" (www.metmuseum.org).