Flirting with Futurism: Norah Borges and the Avant-Garde

Citation

McCarthy E (2015) Flirting with Futurism: Norah Borges and the Avant-Garde. In: International Yearbook of Futurism Studies. De Gruyter, pp. 111-135.

Abstract
The Argentine visual artist Norah Borges (1901-1998) travelled to Europe with her family and began her artistic career in Switzerland and Spain at just 17 years of age. She arrived in Europe at a time of war but also at a moment in which avant-garde movements were questioning the future direction of visual representation. Her development as an artist within this context would prove decisive and Norah developed a style of her own by drawing eclectically upon Cubism, Expressionism and Futurism. She also combined elements of these movements with influences from more traditional forms of painting, evading categorization by any particular Modernist school or ¬-ism. This fusion of elements resulted in her work being hailed as the epitome of the Spanish avant-garde movement ultraísmo, and getting published in some of the most important avant-garde periodicals of the time. This essay seeks to explore the influences of Futurism in Norah's early prints and considers the longer-lasting effects the movement had on her style. It builds upon previous studies of Norah's early prints, which have provided detailed analyses of the influences of Expressionism and Cubism, and aims to draw out the elements of Futurism contained in her earliest works. Whilst the emphasis is on the influences of Futurism, the intention of the analysis is to underscore the artist's successful blending of diverse styles in images that resonated with the wider concerns of various avant-garde movements.