MARJORIE PERLOFF Avant-Garde, Avant Guerre, and the Language of Rupture THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON FUTURIST Marjorie Perloff is professor of English and comparative literature at Stanford University. She is the author of many articles and books, including The Dance of the Intellect: Studies in the Poetry of the Pound Tradition and The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage. Published with the assistance of the J. Paul Getty Trust Permission to quote from the following sources is gratefully acknowledged: Ezra Pound, Personae. Copyright 1926 by Ezra Pound. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Ezra Pound, Collected Early Poems. Copyright 1976 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust. All rights reserved. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Ezra Pound, The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Copyright 1934, 1948, 1956 by Ezra Pound. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Blaise Cendrars, Selected Writings. Copyright 1962, 1966 by Walter Albert. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1986 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1986 Printed in the United States of America 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86 54321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perloff, Marjorie. The futurist moment. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Futurism. 2. Arts, Modern—20th century. I. Title. NX600.F8P46 1986 700'. 94 86-3147 ISBN 0-226-65731-0 For DAVID ANTIN CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xiii Preface xvii 1. Profond Aujourd’hui 2 2. The Invention of Collage 42 3. Violence and Precision: The Manifesto as Art Form 80 4. The Word Set Free: Text and Image in the Russian Futurist Book 116 5. Ezra Pound and “The Prose Tradition in Verse” 162 6. Deus ex Machina: Some Futurist Legacies 194 Notes 239 Index 275 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES Followingpage 1. Details of La Prose du Transsiberien et de la petite Jehanne de France 40 2. Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Violin and Fruit 200 3. Kasimir Malevich, Woman at Poster Column 200 4. Natalya Goncharova, cover design for Mirskontsa 200 5. Wyndham Lewis, cover design for BLAST 200 FIGURES Page 1.1. Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay, La Prose du Transsiberien et de la petite Jehanne de France 4 1.2. Subscription form for La Prose du Transsiberien 7 1.3. Giacomo Balia, Dynamism of a Dog in Motion 8 1.4. Robert Delaunay, The Tower and the Wheel 25 1.5. B1 aise Cendrars, Le Transsiberien 28 1.6. B1 aise Cendrars, “Profond aujourd’hui” 40 2.1. Gino Severini, Homage to My Father 46 2.2. Vase with Flowers, postage stamp collage 48 2.3. Umberto Boccioni, Fusion of a Head and a Window 53 2.4. Gino Severini, Still Life with Fruit Bowl 55 2.5. Umberto Boccioni, Development of a Bottle in Space 56 2.6. F. T. Marinetti, from Zang Tumb Tuuum 60 2.7. Carlo Carra, Demonstration for Intervention in the War 62 2.8. Kasimir Malevich, Partial Eclipse with Mona Lisa 68 2.9. Vladimir Tatlin, Corner Relief 70 2.10. Jacques Derrida, Glas 76 2.11. Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau: View with Blue Window 78 3.1. Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises 91 3.2. Carlo Carra, Funeral of the Anarchist Galli 91 3.3. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, Der Blaue Reiter 94 3.4. F. T. Marinetti, “The Music Hall” 97 3.5. Guillaume Apollinaire, HAntitraditionfuturiste 98 3.6. Giacomo Balia, Le Vetement antineutraliste 100 IX X ILLUSTRATIONS 3.7. F. T. Marinetti, After the Marne, Joffre Visited the Front in an Automobile 101 3.8. Andre Warnod, cartoon illustration for “Venice futuriste” 104 3.9. Andre Warnod, cartoon illustration for “Venice futuriste” 105 3.10. Tristan Tzara, Manifesto of Monsieur Antipyrine 112 4.1. Alexei Kruchenykh, “Dyr bul shchul” and Mikhail Larionov, drawing 122 4.2. Kasimir Malevich, Simultaneous Death of a Man in an Aeroplane and at the Railway 129 4.3. N. I. Kulbin, illustration for The Performance of Love 131 4.4. L. F. Shmit-Ryzhova, illustration for The Performance of Love 131 4.5. Mikhail Larionov, front cover of Starinnaya lyubov 132 4.6. A. Kruchenykh, Starinnaya lyubov 133 4.7. M. Larionov, drawing in Starinnaya lyubov 135 4.8. M. Larionov, drawing, and A. Kruchenykh, “Kak trudno mertvykh voskreshat” 138 4.9. M. Larionov, drawing for “Akhmet” 140 4.10. A. Kruchenykh, “Akhmet” 140 4.11. N. Goncharova, drawing for Mirskontsa 142 4.12. Kasimir Malevich, cover for Troe 143 4.13. K. Malevich, Pilot 145 4.14. K. Malevich, untitled drawing for Troe 151 4.15. D. Burliuk, illustration for Vladimir Mayakovsky: A Tragedy 156 4.16. D. Burliuk, illustration for Vladimir Mayakovsky: A Tragedy 158 4.17. A. Kruchenykh, zaum text 159 5.1. D. Burliuk, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, and V. Shklovsky, cover design for VZYAL 164 5.2. Giacomo Balia, Vortice 176 5.3. Wyndham Lewis, BLAST 182 5.4. F. T. Marinetti, “Foreword to the Book of Anrep” 185 6.1. Robert Delaunay, Champs de Mars 197 6.2. Guillaume Apollinaire, “Lettre-Ocean” 198 6.3. Jim Dine, illustration for The Poet Assassinated 199 6.4. Andre Martin, photograph of the interior structure of the Eiffel Tower 204 6.5. Robert Smithson, Four-Sided Vortex 214 ILLUSTRATIONS xi 6.6. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty 216 6.7. Samuel F. B. Morse, Allegorical Landscape, in The Writings of Robert Smithson 219 6.8. Robert Smithson, The Bridge Monument Showing Wooden S idewalks 221 6.9. Robert Smithson, “The Great Pipes Monument” and “The Foundation Monument” 223 6.10. Robert Smithson, “Quasi-Infinities and the Waning of Space” 226 6.11. Robert Smithson, “Quasi-Infinities and the Waning of Space” 227 6.12. Robert Smithson, “Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction” 231 6.13. Robert Smithson, Spiral Hill 233 6.14. Robert Smithson, Broken Circle 233 6.15. Vladimir Tatlin, Model of the Monument to the Third International 235 6.16. Dan Flavin, Monument 7for V. Tatlin 237 ABBREVIATIONS AA Hal Foster, ed.. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (Port Townsend, Wash.: Bay Press, 1983). AAF Ellendea Proffer and Carl R. Proffer, eds., The Ardis Anthology of Russian Futurism (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1980). ABC Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading (New York: New Directions, 1960). AF Maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori, eds., Archivi del futurismo, 2 vols. (Rome: De Luca, 1958—62). AO Michael Fried, “Art and Objecthood,” reprinted in Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology, ed. Gregory Batcock (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968). B BLAST . review of the great English vortex, nos. 1 and 2, a facsimile edition, ed. Bradford Morrow (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, 1981). Unless otherwise noted, no. 1 is cited. BR Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, eds., The Blaue Reiter Almanac, New Documentary edition, ed. Klaus Lankheit, trans. Henning Falkenstein (New York: Viking Press, 1974). C The Cantos of Ezra Pound (New York: New Directions, 1971). CEP Collected Early Poems of Ezra Pound, ed. Michael John King (New York: New Directions, 1976). CFS Kasimir Malevich, From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Painterly Realism, in RA. Coll Louis Aragon, Les Collages (Paris: Hermann, 1980). DBR Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, eds., Der Blaue Reiter, Dokumentarische Neuausgabe von Klaus Lankheit (Munich: R. Pier, 1965). DPP Robert Motherwell, ed.. The Dada Painters and Poets (New York: George Wittenborn, Inc., 1967). EA Kasimir Malevich, Essays on Art, 1915—1933, ed. Troels Andersen, trans. Xenia Glowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin, 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Borgen, 1968). E Giovanni Lista, Futurisme: Manifestes, documents, proclama¬ tions (Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, 1973). xiii XIV ABBREVIATIONS FD Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non- Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). FM Umbro Apollonio, ed., Futurist Manifestos, trans. Robert Brain et al., Documents of Twentieth-Century Art (New York: Viking Press, 1973). GB Ezra Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska (New York: New Directions, 1970). GS Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhauser (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp). GV Roland Barthes, Le Grain de la voix: Entretiens, 1962—1980 (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1981). Ill Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 1969). Int The Grain of the Voice: Interviews, 1962—1980, trans. Linda Coverdale (New York: Hill and Wang, 1985). IS Blaise Cendrars, Inedits secrets, ed. Miriam Cendrars, OC, vol. 16 (Paris: Le Club frangais du livre, 1969). KT Velimir Khlebnikov, The King of Time: Poems, Fictions, Visions of the Future, ed. Charlotte Douglas, trans. Paul Schmidt (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985). LE Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, ed. T. S. Eliot (New York: New Directions, 1954). LRL Gerald Janecek, The Look of Russian Literature: Avant-Garde Visual Experiments, 1900—1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). M Howard N. Fox, Metaphor: New Projects by Contemporary Sculptors (Acconci, Armajani, Aycock, Ewing, Morris, Oppenheim). (Washington, D.C.: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982). MF Giovanni Lista, ed., Marinetti et le futurisme: Etudes, documents, iconographie, Cahiers des Avant-Gardes (Lausanne: Editions L’Age d’Homme, 1977). MPF Vladimir Markov, ed., Manifesti y programmy russkikh futuristovlDie Manifeste und Programmschriften der Russischen Futuristen, Slavische Propylaen (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1967). Mu Group Mu, eds., Collages, Revue dlEsthetique, nos. 3—4 (Paris: Union Generale, 1978). OAG Rosalind Krauss, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1985). ABBREVIATIONS XV OC Blaise Cendrars, Oeuvres completes, 16 vols., ed. Raymond Dumay and Nino Frank (Paris: Le Club frangais du livre, 1968-71). OHA Benedikt Livshits, The One-and-a-Half-Eyed Archer, ed.