The 20th century was not quite ten years old when, in February 1909, Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto was published in Le Figaro. A photograph taken in Paris in 1912 when Les Peintres futuristes italiens was opening at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery has Marinetti in the centre of a row of artists - all in bowler hats, heavy overcoats and shiny shoes. They look like a gloomy delegation of well turned out travelling salesmen.

LRB 25 June 2009 | PDF Download