
(left) Books!, Alexander Rodchenko,1924 (right) Green Patriot Posters, Help It, 2010 (click images to enlarge)
One of the things I love most about digesting images all day is that it comes with an element of surprise. I never know exactly what I will see on any given day, that will get under my skin, catapult me out of my chair or send me into research mode. Because I don't limit the scope of visuals I'm taking in to "art" in the formal sense, I will never grow starved of stimulating imagery. Nevertheless there are historical art movements and particular artists that continue to ignite my emotions and shape my experience of life.
The 20th Century Italian Futurists have me hooked in tight. This group of artists successfully defined a visual language that demanded social upheaval. Although their message and artistic style was specific to their time and place in history, the spirit of art and revoltion they sought is universal and eternal.
The Futurists, the most well known being Filippo Marianetti and Umberto Bocchioni, sought to purge society of anything 'old'. In their Futurist Manifesto of 1909, which was originally published in the French paper, Le Figaro, they emphasized speed, technology, youth and violence; and objects such as the car, airplane and the industrial city. It called for a complete departure from the past in all facets of society (especially art). Whether I agree with the all of the points in the manifesto isn't the point; the Futurists' faith in visual art, architecture, music, graphic design and literature to change society, is. For me, the dynamism and energy embodied in Italian Futurist works laces them with a interior beauty that is powerful and timeless. In Boccioni's iconic Continuity in Space pictured at left, speed and movement are the true subjects of the piece rather than the abstracted figure who is running into the future at warp speed. Similarly we can see in this painting below from 1913, that the artist, Natalia Goncharova, is interested more in illustrating the action of the rider's body in motion than she is in anatomical details. 
In addition to Art Deco, Surrealism and Dada, Futurism helped birth the Russian Avant-garde, in particular Russian Constructivism. This art and theory based movement is best exemplified after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Emerging out of tumult (the Czar had just been assassinated and Russia was heading towards civil war) Constructivist artists El Lissitsky, Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko aligned themselves with the revolution, believing that Communism would create a new order and that technology would provide for society's needs. They rejected art for art's sake in favor of art as a "practice with social purposes". Alexander Rodchenko's provoking poster, Books! (the image at the top of this page) is a photomontage whose message is, "Hey Russians! The power and initial success of the Bolsheviks is a result of books and knowledge, so read up!"
They considered themselves 'constructors' rather than artists or designers, working to bring a unity between art and technology by fashioning new objects. The Constructivists devoted themselves to industrial design, poster design and photojournalism. Constructivist graphic and typographical styles have never gone away. Design elements like striking yet simple visual imagery, symbols, bold colors, lines, angles and sans-serif type transferred to the Bauhaus, DeStijl, and (most likely) your favorite living designer. The image on the right, Lyubov Popova's, Design for the cover of the booklet ‘Russian Postal Telegraph Statistics’ from 1921, is typical of the Constructivist style. 
There are few continents on which this spirit of art led social change, isn't apparent. Emperors, kings and presidents have utilized the arts, often affecting entire periods of history, for better or for worse. It might be tempting to say that we don't see much art aimed at social change today; I'm not convinced one way or another that is true. In an effort to familiarize myself with those artists and collectives who are working in this vein, I'm always open for new discoveries, so please share away.
The spirit of the Italian Futurists and Russian Constructivists is unmistakable in political/social change poster art, which is an entire tradition worthy of its own multi-volume encyclopedia. One of my favorite recent discoveries is Green Patriot Posters who describe themselves as a communications campaign centered on posters that encourage all U.S. citizens to build a sustainable economy. Taking inspiration from the mobilization of American citizens to change their consumption habits during WWII, Green Patriot Posters seeks to inspire advocacy for energy independence and the fight against climate change, through poster making.
The posters on their site tackle a variety of issues facing the US today and though some of the posters are bleak and uncomfortable (as they should be), the overall message that participating in a sustainability movement should be a defining value of 21st Century patriotism, is tremendously encouraging. No longer should those of us opposed to war be deemed anti-patriotic. Green Patriot Posters wants you to know: if you live each day with some conscious focus on how your consumption affects the longevity of your community, then you are practicing patriotism.
You can see for yourself, the wealth of posters their designers have carefully and cleverly fashioned. My personal favorites are this one, which says to me that a seamless and graceful relationship with the natural world is sustainable and yup, sexy; this one because the image is so strong and gutteral that it needs no words; and this one because of its obvious nod to the grand-daddy of poster art, Russian Constructivism.
No doubt that as people continue to push ideas via the internet, that political poster art will morph. You don't have to look too hard to see how street art is evolving graphically with stencils. Almost any city you visit today is peppered more with politically and socially driven street art than with printed posters. It will be interesting to see how trends in digital media and street art evolve together or in complete contrast to one another. 
Two things are for sure: the need to communicate political and social messages isn't going away. The legacy of modernist movements like Futurism and Constructivism prove that the arts play an essential role in moving ideas through us intellectually and emotioanally.