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100 Artists' Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists
In this remarkable collection of 100 manifestos from the last 100 years, Alex Danchev presents the cacophony of voices of such diverse movements as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Feminism, Communism, Destructivism, Vorticism, Stridentism, Cannibalism and Stuckism, taking in along the way film, architecture, fashion, and cookery. Artists' manifestos are nothing if not revolutionary. They are outlandish, outrageous, and frequently offensive. They combine wit, wisdom, and world-shaking demands. This collection gathers together an international array of artists of every stripe, including Kandinsky, Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, Le Corbusier, Picabia, Dali, Oldenburg, Vertov, Baselitz, Kitaj, Murakami, Gilbert and George, together with their allies and collaborators - such figures as Marinetti, Apollinaire, Breton, Trotsky, Guy Debord and Rem Koolhaas. This title is edited with an Introduction by Alex Danchev.
454 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 2011
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2563 people want to read
About the author
Alex Danchev
40 books19 followersAlex Danchev was Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, and a long-standing friend of the Tate in London, where he has been a member of the Acquisition Committee of the Patrons of New Art.
His interests wandered across the borders of art, politics, and military history although his focus is chiefly biographical.
His biography of the philosopher-statesman Oliver Franks (Oxford University Press, 1993) was on the Observer's 'Books of the Year' and his biography of the military writer Basil Liddell Hart (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) was listed for the Whitbread Prize for Biography and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
His unexpurgated edition of the Alanbrooke Diaries (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001) was listed for the W.H. Smith Prize for Biography. In 2009 he published On Art and War and Terror, a collection of essays on the most difficult issues of our age and, in particular, the nature of humanity in times of conflict.
His interests wandered across the borders of art, politics, and military history although his focus is chiefly biographical.
His biography of the philosopher-statesman Oliver Franks (Oxford University Press, 1993) was on the Observer's 'Books of the Year' and his biography of the military writer Basil Liddell Hart (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) was listed for the Whitbread Prize for Biography and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction.
His unexpurgated edition of the Alanbrooke Diaries (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001) was listed for the W.H. Smith Prize for Biography. In 2009 he published On Art and War and Terror, a collection of essays on the most difficult issues of our age and, in particular, the nature of humanity in times of conflict.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 7, 2012
A useful and interesting book, but never going to change the fact that Modernism and I do not get on!!
The manifestoes themselves are funny, bordering on the ridiculous at times, but the introductions to the movements and the main introduction tracing the rise of the manifesto are more useful to me as an enforced modernism student.
One point that my modernist lecturer raised and that's really too funny to be ignored: so many modernist movements kept referring people back to their art, saying that it was non-figural because 'everything you need to know about what they're trying to convey is evoked in feelings arising from the art.' WHY then did they feel the need to write so many manifestoes putting their ideas into words?- shouldn't their art have been able to explain it all?
Someone should really make a 'Modernism manifesto generator' already... lots of list, shouting (well, capitals), words like 'bourgeois' and 'academic' in quotes, and sentences that make absolutely no sense, no matter how closely you try to decipher them...
The manifestoes themselves are funny, bordering on the ridiculous at times, but the introductions to the movements and the main introduction tracing the rise of the manifesto are more useful to me as an enforced modernism student.
One point that my modernist lecturer raised and that's really too funny to be ignored: so many modernist movements kept referring people back to their art, saying that it was non-figural because 'everything you need to know about what they're trying to convey is evoked in feelings arising from the art.' WHY then did they feel the need to write so many manifestoes putting their ideas into words?- shouldn't their art have been able to explain it all?
Someone should really make a 'Modernism manifesto generator' already... lots of list, shouting (well, capitals), words like 'bourgeois' and 'academic' in quotes, and sentences that make absolutely no sense, no matter how closely you try to decipher them...
October 5, 2021
A robustly proportioned overview of the twentieth century’s most egocentric and ambitious artistic movements, stretching from Futurism in 1909 to The Other Muswell Hill Stuckists in 2009. The most sublime manifestoes in this volume are mainly the famous ones, from Marinetti’s brave vaunt into the century, Valentine de Saint-Pont’s proto-feminist recasting of Futurism, Mina Loy’s playful aphorisms, Wyndham Lewis’s BLAST of fresh air in English letters, Hugo Ball & Tristan Tzara’s truly epochal Dadaist madness, Salvador Dali’s Yellow Manifesto skewering the staid Catalan art scene, and so on. Sixty of these manifestos were published pre-1945, the most bustling period of invention the roaring 1920s, when the foundations for the rest of the century’s innovations in art were planted. The more outlandish and less long-winded manifestoes are naturally the more interesting, some of the essay-length ones are frequently tedious and uninspiring (the most pompous ones on architecture), the modern ones pale imitations of the legendary ones, and the editor is patronisingly dismissive of Dogme 95.
February 3, 2016
I'm sure you think this book looks hella dry. Think again. Not only does it bring us such utterly sublime lines as:
"On the one hand a tottering world in flight, betrothed to the glockenspiel of hell"
and
"...the jew is underneath the lot.' - T.S. Eliot
Hi, Tom. Fuck you in my art each day."
and
"What are you doing here, parked like serious oysters - for you are serious, right?"
but I found it also gave me a rich lesson in art history that I never knew I'd been crying out for. At the risk of sounding rather facile, I feel as if I have a better understanding now of how one school of art was born from the next, and why they happened when they did at their particular time. This is something which my art lessons lacked in spades. You can't argue with primary source material. Well, you can try, I suppose, but I'd rather learn this stuff from the horses mouths rather than from the textbooks written by someone who looked at the horses paintings after the horse was long since...err...gone.
As a result of this, I've awarded this book with four whole stars. If you've browsed my previous ratings, you may notice that I'm a supremely harsh marker, so be assured that I'm not doing this lightly. In your face, Pride and Prejudice.
P.S. I imagine that the only book which employs the word plastic more often than this one would be something like Syed Ali Ashter's magnum opus: Thermoforming of Single and Multilayer Laminates: Plastic Films Technologies, Testing, and Applications
TL:DR Read this book? DADA.
"On the one hand a tottering world in flight, betrothed to the glockenspiel of hell"
and
"...the jew is underneath the lot.' - T.S. Eliot
Hi, Tom. Fuck you in my art each day."
and
"What are you doing here, parked like serious oysters - for you are serious, right?"
but I found it also gave me a rich lesson in art history that I never knew I'd been crying out for. At the risk of sounding rather facile, I feel as if I have a better understanding now of how one school of art was born from the next, and why they happened when they did at their particular time. This is something which my art lessons lacked in spades. You can't argue with primary source material. Well, you can try, I suppose, but I'd rather learn this stuff from the horses mouths rather than from the textbooks written by someone who looked at the horses paintings after the horse was long since...err...gone.
As a result of this, I've awarded this book with four whole stars. If you've browsed my previous ratings, you may notice that I'm a supremely harsh marker, so be assured that I'm not doing this lightly. In your face, Pride and Prejudice.
P.S. I imagine that the only book which employs the word plastic more often than this one would be something like Syed Ali Ashter's magnum opus: Thermoforming of Single and Multilayer Laminates: Plastic Films Technologies, Testing, and Applications
TL:DR Read this book? DADA.
December 30, 2014
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts
--F. T. Marinetti, 'The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism' (1909)
--Umberto Boccioni and others, 'Manifesto of the Futurist Painters' (1910)
--Umberto Boccioni and others, 'Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto' (1910)
--Takamura Kōtarō, 'A Green Sun' (1910)
--F. T. Marinetti, 'Against Traditionalist Venice' (1910)
--Guillaume Apollinaire, 'On the Subject in Modern Painting' (1912)
--Valentine de Saint-Point, 'Manifesto of Futurist Woman' (1912)
--Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, 'Preface to Der Blaue Reiter Almanac' (1912)
--Valentine de Saint-Point, 'Futurist Manifesto of Lust' (1913)
--Mikhail Larionov and Natalya Goncharova, 'Rayonists and Futurists: A Manifesto' (1913)
--Guillaume Apollinaire, 'L'antitradition futuriste' (1913)
--Carlo Carrà, 'The Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells' (1913)
--Giacomo Balla, 'Futurist Manifesto of Men's Clothing' (1913)
--Mina Loy, 'Aphorisms on Futurism' (1914)
--Ricciotto Canudo, 'Cerebrist Art' (1914)
--F. T. Marinetti and C. R. W. Nevinson, 'The Futurist Manifesto Against English Art' (1914)
--Wyndham Lewis and others, 'Manifesto' (1914)
--Wyndham Lewis and others, 'Our Vortex' (1914)
--Antonio Sant'Elia, 'Manifesto of Futurist Architecture' (1914)
--F. T. Marinetti and others, 'Futurist Synthesis of the War' (1914)
--Mina Loy, 'Feminist Manifesto' (1914)
--Carlo Carrà, 'Warpainting' (1915)
--Vladimir Mayakovsky, 'A Drop of Tar' (1915)
--Kasimir Malevich, 'Suprematist Manifesto' (1916)
--Hugo Ball, 'Dada Manifesto' (1916)
--Olga Rozanova, 'Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism' (1917)
--Vladimir Mayakovsky and others, 'Manifesto of the Flying Federation of Futurists' (1918)
--Tristan Tzara, 'Dada Manifesto' (1918)
--Richard Huelsenbeck, 'First German Dada Manifesto' (1918)
--Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 'Purism' (1918)
--Aleksandr Rodchenko and others, 'Manifesto of Suprematists and Non-Objective Painters' (1919)
--Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul Hausmann, 'What is Dadaism and what does it want in Germany?' (1919)
--Walter Gropius, 'What is Architecture?' (1919)
--Francis Picabia, 'Dada Manifesto' (1920)
--Francis Picabia, 'Dada Cannibalistic Manifesto' (1920)
--Tristan Tzara and others, 'Twenty-Three Manifestos of the Dada Movement' (1920)
--Naum Gabo and Anton Pevzner, 'The Realistic Manifesto' (1920)
--Liubov Popova, 'On Organizing Anew' (c.1921)
--Tristan Tzara and others, 'Dada Excites Everything' (1921)
--Manuel Maples Arcre, 'A Strident Prescription' (1921)
--Dziga Vertov, 'WE: Variant of a Manifesto' (1922)
--Theo van Doesburg and others, 'Manifesto I of De Stijl' (1922)
--Vicente Huidobro, 'We Must Create' (1922)
--Aleksandr Rodchenko, 'Manifesto of the Constructivist Group' (c.1922)
--Le Corbusier, 'Toward an Architecture' (1923)
--Theo van Doesburg and others, 'Manifesto Prole Art' (1923)
--Tomoshoi Murayama and others, 'Mavo Manifesto' (1923)
--David Alfaro Siqueiros and others, 'Manifesto of the Union of Mexican Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors' (1923)
--The Red Group, 'Manifesto' (1924)
--André Breton, 'Manifesto of Surrealism' (1924)
--José Carlos Mariátegui, 'Art, Revolution and Decadence' (1926)
--Salvador Dalí and others, 'Yellow Manifesto' (1928)
--Oswald de Andrade, 'Cannibalistic Manifesto' (1928)
--André Breton, 'Second Manifesto of Surrealism' (1929)
--F. T. Marinetti and Fillia, 'Manifesto of Futurist Cuisine' (1930)
--John Reed Club of New York, 'Draft Manifesto' (1932)
--Mario Sironi, 'Manifesto of Mural Painting' (1933)
--Károly (Charles) Sirató and others, 'Dimensionist Manifesto' (1936)
--André Breton, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, 'Manifesto: Towards a Free Revolutionary Art' (1938)
--Jean (Hans) Arp, 'Concrete Art' (1942)
--Lucio Fontana, 'White Manifesto' (1946)
--Edgar Bayley and others, 'Inventionist Manifesto' (1946)
--Constant Nieuwenhuys, 'Manifesto' (1948)
--Barnett Newman, 'The Sublime is Now' (1948)
--Victor Vasarely, 'Notes for a Manifesto' (1955)
--Jirō Yoshihara, 'The Gutai Manifesto' (1956)
--Jean Tinguely, 'For Static' (1959)
--Ferreira Gullar, 'Neo-Concrete Manifesto' (1959)
--Gustav Metzger, 'Auto-Destructive Art' (1959, 1960, 1961)
--Guy Debord, 'Situationist Manifesto' (1960)
--Claes Oldenburg, 'I Am for an Art' (1961)
--Georg Baselitz, 'Pandemonic Manifesto I, 2nd version' (1961)
--Raphael Montañez Ortiz, 'Destructivism: A Manifesto' (1962)
--George Maciunas, 'Fluxus Manifesto' (1963)
--Wolf Vostell, 'Manifesto' (1963)
--Stan Brakhage, 'Metaphors on Vision' (1963)
--Stanley Brouwn, 'A Short Manifesto' (1964)
--Derek Jarman, 'Manifesto' (1964)
--Robert Venturi, 'Non-Straightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto' (1966)
--Gilbert and George, 'The Law of Sculptors' (1969)
--Mierle Laderman Ukeles, 'Maintenance Art Manifesto' (1969)
--Paul Neagu, 'Palpable Art Manifesto' (1969)
--Gilbert and George, 'What Our Art Means' (1970)
--Douglas Davis, 'Manifesto' (1974)
--Maroin Dib and others, 'Manifesto of the Arab Surrealist Movement' (1975)
--Rem Koolhaas, 'Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan' (1978)
--Coop Himmelb(l)au, 'Architecture Must Blaze' (1980)
--Georg Baselitz, 'Painters' Equipment' (1985)
--R. B. Kitaj, 'First Diasporist Manifesto' (1989)
--Lebbeus Woods, 'Manifesto' (1993)
--Dogme 95, 'Manifesto' (1995)
--Michael Betancourt, 'The-----------------Manifesto' (1996)
--Charles Jencks, '13 Propositions of Post-Modern Architecture' (1996)
--Werner Herzog, 'Minnesota Declaration' (1999)
--Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, 'The Stuckist Manifesto' (1999)
--Takashi Murakami, 'The Super Flat Manifesto' (2000)
--Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, 'Remodernist Manifesto' (2000)
--R. B. Kitaj, 'Second Diasporist Manifesto' (2007)
--Austin Williams and others, 'Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture' (2008)
--Edgeworth Johnstone, Shelley Li and others, 'The Founding, Manifesto and Rules of The Other Muswell Hill Stuckists' (2009)
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Texts
--F. T. Marinetti, 'The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism' (1909)
--Umberto Boccioni and others, 'Manifesto of the Futurist Painters' (1910)
--Umberto Boccioni and others, 'Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto' (1910)
--Takamura Kōtarō, 'A Green Sun' (1910)
--F. T. Marinetti, 'Against Traditionalist Venice' (1910)
--Guillaume Apollinaire, 'On the Subject in Modern Painting' (1912)
--Valentine de Saint-Point, 'Manifesto of Futurist Woman' (1912)
--Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, 'Preface to Der Blaue Reiter Almanac' (1912)
--Valentine de Saint-Point, 'Futurist Manifesto of Lust' (1913)
--Mikhail Larionov and Natalya Goncharova, 'Rayonists and Futurists: A Manifesto' (1913)
--Guillaume Apollinaire, 'L'antitradition futuriste' (1913)
--Carlo Carrà, 'The Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells' (1913)
--Giacomo Balla, 'Futurist Manifesto of Men's Clothing' (1913)
--Mina Loy, 'Aphorisms on Futurism' (1914)
--Ricciotto Canudo, 'Cerebrist Art' (1914)
--F. T. Marinetti and C. R. W. Nevinson, 'The Futurist Manifesto Against English Art' (1914)
--Wyndham Lewis and others, 'Manifesto' (1914)
--Wyndham Lewis and others, 'Our Vortex' (1914)
--Antonio Sant'Elia, 'Manifesto of Futurist Architecture' (1914)
--F. T. Marinetti and others, 'Futurist Synthesis of the War' (1914)
--Mina Loy, 'Feminist Manifesto' (1914)
--Carlo Carrà, 'Warpainting' (1915)
--Vladimir Mayakovsky, 'A Drop of Tar' (1915)
--Kasimir Malevich, 'Suprematist Manifesto' (1916)
--Hugo Ball, 'Dada Manifesto' (1916)
--Olga Rozanova, 'Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism' (1917)
--Vladimir Mayakovsky and others, 'Manifesto of the Flying Federation of Futurists' (1918)
--Tristan Tzara, 'Dada Manifesto' (1918)
--Richard Huelsenbeck, 'First German Dada Manifesto' (1918)
--Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 'Purism' (1918)
--Aleksandr Rodchenko and others, 'Manifesto of Suprematists and Non-Objective Painters' (1919)
--Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul Hausmann, 'What is Dadaism and what does it want in Germany?' (1919)
--Walter Gropius, 'What is Architecture?' (1919)
--Francis Picabia, 'Dada Manifesto' (1920)
--Francis Picabia, 'Dada Cannibalistic Manifesto' (1920)
--Tristan Tzara and others, 'Twenty-Three Manifestos of the Dada Movement' (1920)
--Naum Gabo and Anton Pevzner, 'The Realistic Manifesto' (1920)
--Liubov Popova, 'On Organizing Anew' (c.1921)
--Tristan Tzara and others, 'Dada Excites Everything' (1921)
--Manuel Maples Arcre, 'A Strident Prescription' (1921)
--Dziga Vertov, 'WE: Variant of a Manifesto' (1922)
--Theo van Doesburg and others, 'Manifesto I of De Stijl' (1922)
--Vicente Huidobro, 'We Must Create' (1922)
--Aleksandr Rodchenko, 'Manifesto of the Constructivist Group' (c.1922)
--Le Corbusier, 'Toward an Architecture' (1923)
--Theo van Doesburg and others, 'Manifesto Prole Art' (1923)
--Tomoshoi Murayama and others, 'Mavo Manifesto' (1923)
--David Alfaro Siqueiros and others, 'Manifesto of the Union of Mexican Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors' (1923)
--The Red Group, 'Manifesto' (1924)
--André Breton, 'Manifesto of Surrealism' (1924)
--José Carlos Mariátegui, 'Art, Revolution and Decadence' (1926)
--Salvador Dalí and others, 'Yellow Manifesto' (1928)
--Oswald de Andrade, 'Cannibalistic Manifesto' (1928)
--André Breton, 'Second Manifesto of Surrealism' (1929)
--F. T. Marinetti and Fillia, 'Manifesto of Futurist Cuisine' (1930)
--John Reed Club of New York, 'Draft Manifesto' (1932)
--Mario Sironi, 'Manifesto of Mural Painting' (1933)
--Károly (Charles) Sirató and others, 'Dimensionist Manifesto' (1936)
--André Breton, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky, 'Manifesto: Towards a Free Revolutionary Art' (1938)
--Jean (Hans) Arp, 'Concrete Art' (1942)
--Lucio Fontana, 'White Manifesto' (1946)
--Edgar Bayley and others, 'Inventionist Manifesto' (1946)
--Constant Nieuwenhuys, 'Manifesto' (1948)
--Barnett Newman, 'The Sublime is Now' (1948)
--Victor Vasarely, 'Notes for a Manifesto' (1955)
--Jirō Yoshihara, 'The Gutai Manifesto' (1956)
--Jean Tinguely, 'For Static' (1959)
--Ferreira Gullar, 'Neo-Concrete Manifesto' (1959)
--Gustav Metzger, 'Auto-Destructive Art' (1959, 1960, 1961)
--Guy Debord, 'Situationist Manifesto' (1960)
--Claes Oldenburg, 'I Am for an Art' (1961)
--Georg Baselitz, 'Pandemonic Manifesto I, 2nd version' (1961)
--Raphael Montañez Ortiz, 'Destructivism: A Manifesto' (1962)
--George Maciunas, 'Fluxus Manifesto' (1963)
--Wolf Vostell, 'Manifesto' (1963)
--Stan Brakhage, 'Metaphors on Vision' (1963)
--Stanley Brouwn, 'A Short Manifesto' (1964)
--Derek Jarman, 'Manifesto' (1964)
--Robert Venturi, 'Non-Straightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto' (1966)
--Gilbert and George, 'The Law of Sculptors' (1969)
--Mierle Laderman Ukeles, 'Maintenance Art Manifesto' (1969)
--Paul Neagu, 'Palpable Art Manifesto' (1969)
--Gilbert and George, 'What Our Art Means' (1970)
--Douglas Davis, 'Manifesto' (1974)
--Maroin Dib and others, 'Manifesto of the Arab Surrealist Movement' (1975)
--Rem Koolhaas, 'Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan' (1978)
--Coop Himmelb(l)au, 'Architecture Must Blaze' (1980)
--Georg Baselitz, 'Painters' Equipment' (1985)
--R. B. Kitaj, 'First Diasporist Manifesto' (1989)
--Lebbeus Woods, 'Manifesto' (1993)
--Dogme 95, 'Manifesto' (1995)
--Michael Betancourt, 'The-----------------Manifesto' (1996)
--Charles Jencks, '13 Propositions of Post-Modern Architecture' (1996)
--Werner Herzog, 'Minnesota Declaration' (1999)
--Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, 'The Stuckist Manifesto' (1999)
--Takashi Murakami, 'The Super Flat Manifesto' (2000)
--Billy Childish and Charles Thomson, 'Remodernist Manifesto' (2000)
--R. B. Kitaj, 'Second Diasporist Manifesto' (2007)
--Austin Williams and others, 'Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture' (2008)
--Edgeworth Johnstone, Shelley Li and others, 'The Founding, Manifesto and Rules of The Other Muswell Hill Stuckists' (2009)
November 21, 2020
Video review to follow
July 3, 2017
Condensing 100 years of Artistic energy into one volume can be challenging reading. Digest at too quick a pace and it will trivialise the sometimes polarising language without context. However, should you scale the summits of this foundational bedrock, the views are breath taking.
This is a rare first hand opportunity to read the direct intentions of Artists who led, and continue to lead the many charges at the cultural front line.
This is a rare first hand opportunity to read the direct intentions of Artists who led, and continue to lead the many charges at the cultural front line.
May 23, 2020
Manifestos are essential reading for anyone who wants to know what modern and contemporary artists were thinking.
Some of them are hilarious.
Some of them are hilarious.
January 14, 2013
Initially borrowed this from the library and ended up buying my own copy so I could keep it around.
November 14, 2016
A very good book to use in a project. Also very good edited and collected.
December 10, 2023
It always feels weird to rate a book on only one scale because I never know if I should rate the writing, the subject, or the whole thing.
I find the little passages before the manifestos well written and full of qualitative information, so that is 5/5 from me.
On the other hand, the book was not what I expected. I have to say that the Futurism approach does not appeal to me and half of the book is just futuristic manifestos, which made me rate the content as a 3/5.
Nonetheless, there are some other interesting points of view I never heard of before and I have to say that the culinary manifesto was the cherry on top. Overall, a 4/5.
I find the little passages before the manifestos well written and full of qualitative information, so that is 5/5 from me.
On the other hand, the book was not what I expected. I have to say that the Futurism approach does not appeal to me and half of the book is just futuristic manifestos, which made me rate the content as a 3/5.
Nonetheless, there are some other interesting points of view I never heard of before and I have to say that the culinary manifesto was the cherry on top. Overall, a 4/5.
June 7, 2020
Very full-on, not for the faint of heart. Meant to be read bit by bit, not all in one sitting. More for reference, fact checking, specific look-up. At least, that's how I will use it.
No doubt, there are those who would love reading all, as is.
No doubt, there are those who would love reading all, as is.
November 19, 2018
A good overview of the last century’s art movements which provides insight in to the time period and shifting anxieties along the way.
January 17, 2022
A lot of it, jargon
Some of it incredibly inspiring !
A thorough collection of manifestos
Some of it incredibly inspiring !
A thorough collection of manifestos
March 19, 2024
100 is natuurlijk een prachtig rond getal, maar van mij hadden en er zo nog een stuk of wat manifesten aan toegevoegd kunnen worden!
September 3, 2025
Fascinating look at artists’ philosophical and unique personal, often esoteric slants on their creative aims. Some of these are almost humorous while others are quite profound. I especially loved the part about Futurism as I always loved those artists and wanted to learn more about out the movement- literally. A few of these manifestos were almost inaccessible, but it is a highly interesting and even entertaining view of the creative mind and their unique beliefs and perspectives.
August 6, 2018
I'm not entirely sure how one is supposed to read this book. All manifestos? Those who interest you? In chronological order? Just randomly pick some every time you pick up the book? Anyway your progress may be a total mess like mine was, the only way I could keep track was by marking the ones I read and the ones I liked with a pencil, as it took me about half a year to finish it.
Although Alex Danchev gives a nice introduction for the whole book and also for every single manifesto I would advise you to read this in a bigger context to get the most out of it. Check the paintings these people were doing and watch records of their exhibitions.
The best combination would be with Julian Rosefeldts movie 'Manifesto' staring Cate Blanchett (available online https://www.julianrosefeldt.com/). You can read the manifestos used for a scene beforehand and then watch the clip - it is very interesting how Rosefeldt brought very different Avantgardes together!
Anyway I liked Danchevs selection and commentary, this book is very illuminating, not as boring as one might think and will make the modern art and its development less confusing (only *less* mind you).
Although Alex Danchev gives a nice introduction for the whole book and also for every single manifesto I would advise you to read this in a bigger context to get the most out of it. Check the paintings these people were doing and watch records of their exhibitions.
The best combination would be with Julian Rosefeldts movie 'Manifesto' staring Cate Blanchett (available online https://www.julianrosefeldt.com/). You can read the manifestos used for a scene beforehand and then watch the clip - it is very interesting how Rosefeldt brought very different Avantgardes together!
Anyway I liked Danchevs selection and commentary, this book is very illuminating, not as boring as one might think and will make the modern art and its development less confusing (only *less* mind you).
February 22, 2023
At the moment I've only got as far as number 34.
This is (so far) clearly a mixed bunch of insight, self-importance, explanation, angry teen, etc.
I suspect it's going to carry on in the same vein.
Made it to 100 - yes, I was right. Some are funny, clear, modest even. But there's a growing pretention mixed with Spartism that makes some unreadable - and some of the writers can't string sentences together (and I don't think it's a deliberate tactic).
The brief biographies and contexts for each piece are clear and informative - and occassionally longer than the manifestos themselves.
This is (so far) clearly a mixed bunch of insight, self-importance, explanation, angry teen, etc.
I suspect it's going to carry on in the same vein.
Made it to 100 - yes, I was right. Some are funny, clear, modest even. But there's a growing pretention mixed with Spartism that makes some unreadable - and some of the writers can't string sentences together (and I don't think it's a deliberate tactic).
The brief biographies and contexts for each piece are clear and informative - and occassionally longer than the manifestos themselves.
July 25, 2011
...the soul must be purified; the eye must be freed from its veil of atavism and culture, so that it may at last look upon Nature and not upon the museum as the one and only standard
-Umberto Boccioni from Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto
...you must paint, as drunkards sing and vomit, sounds, noises and smells!
-Carlo Carra from The painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells
-Umberto Boccioni from Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto
...you must paint, as drunkards sing and vomit, sounds, noises and smells!
-Carlo Carra from The painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells
July 17, 2018
I didn't finish this but giving it four stars because it is a really interesting book, but I can't read it in one go. This is going to be one of those books I pick up every now and again. It is so fascinating, but quite dense. A good read between other books, but definitely not a sit down and finish in two weeks kind of book.
March 29, 2012
An absolutely wonderful collection. Worth it as much for the wonderfully written introductions to each manifesto as for the manifestos themselves, most of which are freely available all over the place.
December 22, 2014
interesting historical record
interesting artistic record and makes you think
you can skip any manifestos you don't like but they work.
it's interesting and it's fun to see what they felt and how it all turned out especially the futurists
it's good you can read it between novels
interesting artistic record and makes you think
you can skip any manifestos you don't like but they work.
it's interesting and it's fun to see what they felt and how it all turned out especially the futurists
it's good you can read it between novels
July 1, 2022
Absolute yum for the lover of art.
January 20, 2020
A weird one to review because obviously a compilation of 100 different texts mostly written by different authors is going to have ups and downs, but as as whole this was a really engaging read and the wide variety of manifestos kept things interesting.
There's a lot of really significant and thrilling pieces of writing in here, some that I'd been meaning to read already and some new discoveries that have me seeking out more about the artists and their ideas. There was a couple of times when I was thinking that a manifesto may have only been included so that they could reach the round number of 100, but for the most part they were worth reading for the historical perspective they provided, even when I radically disagreed with them.
Each manifesto has a short introduction and biography of the author(s) at the beginning. When these are done well they provide sometimes much-needed context and aid the reading of denser passages. Sadly my main issue with the book was that these varied wildly in quality and the amount of effort that seemed to be put into them, with some getting a couple of pages of exposition and others only a sentence or two.
I imagine this is a book I'll keep dipping into in the future whenever I want to refresh my memory of a particular movement or idea, but reading it from front to back also worked really well and gave a unique perspective on the last century of art history.
There's a lot of really significant and thrilling pieces of writing in here, some that I'd been meaning to read already and some new discoveries that have me seeking out more about the artists and their ideas. There was a couple of times when I was thinking that a manifesto may have only been included so that they could reach the round number of 100, but for the most part they were worth reading for the historical perspective they provided, even when I radically disagreed with them.
Each manifesto has a short introduction and biography of the author(s) at the beginning. When these are done well they provide sometimes much-needed context and aid the reading of denser passages. Sadly my main issue with the book was that these varied wildly in quality and the amount of effort that seemed to be put into them, with some getting a couple of pages of exposition and others only a sentence or two.
I imagine this is a book I'll keep dipping into in the future whenever I want to refresh my memory of a particular movement or idea, but reading it from front to back also worked really well and gave a unique perspective on the last century of art history.
October 5, 2025
100 years of artist manifestos from the Italian Futurists to the Stuckists. I picked this book up with the intention of better understanding the shift from Modernism to Post Modernism in the last century. Having read it I'm still not sure I could tell you what a Post Modernist is.
What I did get was an interesting glimpse into the evolving artistic mind over a century of rapid social, political and economic upheaval. There is a fair amount of naval gazing in these manifestos and, unsurprisingly, many of the authors are self obsessed and overly confident in the importance of their particular movement, but honestly, maybe that's what it takes to push the artistic envelope in a world where everything has been tried and everything is referential. I don't know. I'm not an artist. Check back with me in 100 years.
One quote I did particularly enjoy:
"To be challenging in art today presents no challenge at all. To be revolutionary in art today is to be a reactionary. To be unconventional is to conform. All the barriers that need to be broken have been broken already. The need today is to find out and affirm what is valuable, in the face of contempt. "
What I did get was an interesting glimpse into the evolving artistic mind over a century of rapid social, political and economic upheaval. There is a fair amount of naval gazing in these manifestos and, unsurprisingly, many of the authors are self obsessed and overly confident in the importance of their particular movement, but honestly, maybe that's what it takes to push the artistic envelope in a world where everything has been tried and everything is referential. I don't know. I'm not an artist. Check back with me in 100 years.
One quote I did particularly enjoy:
"To be challenging in art today presents no challenge at all. To be revolutionary in art today is to be a reactionary. To be unconventional is to conform. All the barriers that need to be broken have been broken already. The need today is to find out and affirm what is valuable, in the face of contempt. "
May 10, 2023
Took me forever to read, maybe on/off over 3 years. Nothing against the editor, his insights into the biographies of all these artists and their movements was great; it's just that I didn't like so many of the manifestos. Some were outright bad. Many of them were vague, wordy, overly academic, etc. etc. Some were good, a couple great. In conclusions, manifestos for the most part suck.
November 30, 2024
ahhh honestly I hoped it would help me to take me out of my desolate feelings when it comes to art, frankly maybe I had the wrong expectations but I found the accumulation of different artists manifestos to be a desolate experience to read through. It felt like looking onto a field of crop that never hatched. Maybe its a rule that counts at least for painting and art, that the ideals should be expressed and not ground into pompus writing. But I guess if you are just interested in an accumulation of art manifestos it is just that.
March 28, 2025
it was an interesting read, the best one imo was “manifesto for an independent revolutionary art”.
which it is said that it was written by trotsky and andre breton, but it was signed by diego rivera and andre.
the rest of them are very laughable, and i would never take it seriously but oh well… artists you know.
which it is said that it was written by trotsky and andre breton, but it was signed by diego rivera and andre.
the rest of them are very laughable, and i would never take it seriously but oh well… artists you know.
December 27, 2018
3.5 stars
January 21, 2024
Half of them were pretentious and annoying
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