Evoluzioni Spiraliche di Aerei [Spiralling Evolutions of Aeroplanes] by Enrico Castello ('Chin'), oil on canvas

In 1918 Italian Futurist painter Enrico Castello, otherwise known as ‘Chin’, represented this combative vision after serving as a fighter pilot. That year, at the end of the war, poet Filippo Marinetti revived the Futurist art movement he had founded in Milan in 1909.

Maintaining its avant-garde focus on abstraction, speed and technology, the Second Futurism, however, also celebrated ‘revolutionary nationalism'. Post-war Italy suffered political and economic disorder, and emergent Fascist organisations gained support from disillusioned ex-servicemen, among them Futurist artists. Marinetti co-opted Futurism into the Fascist doctrine. ‘Aeropittura’ (aerial painting), a militaristic branch of Futurism, became emblematic of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party. Copyright: the artist's estate / RAF Museum.