Artists of all times have tried to imagine the future in their paintings and sculptures. Today we call this trend retrofuturism. We have collected works contemporary artists, who will become retrofuturists in a couple of decades.
Simon Stalenhag
Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag has been fascinated by the beauty of his native landscapes since childhood. In his youth, he painted landscapes in the spirit of his favorite compatriot artists. But when the artist grew up, robots, hadron colliders and giant flying tractors invaded the rural idyll of his paintings. However, people live in this alternative world everyday life and, it seems, are not at all surprised by the wonders around them.
“In the 1950s, the government launched a huge nuclear accelerator and research laboratory just a few kilometers from Stockholm. The laboratory is located underground and produces a large number of experimental technologies. Up until the 70s everything goes great, but then the system begins to collapse. Bad things start to happen. The images on my website show the lives of the people of that world, and how they were affected by the fiasco of the gigantic scientific project. Nobody knows how it will all end,” says Simon about what is happening in his fictional world.
Greg Brotherton
Sculptor Greg Brotherton shows a world of oppression and slavery in his works made of mechanical parts. His sculptures depict faceless, small people chained to their desks and performing monotonous, meaningless tasks. In his youth, Greg read the works of Orwell and Kafka, which suited his mood at that time. The artist still looks at the world through the eyes of a gloomy teenager, filled with fear of the future.
Leo Eguiarte
Los Angeles artist Leo Eguiarte transforms old printed circuit boards into a pessimistic illustration of the future. His works, executed in acidic color scheme, relate to the problem of a person’s fixation on material values. The artist’s favorite colors - purple, turquoise and emerald - are present in all Egiarte’s paintings, forming, in combination with the geometric shapes, an image of a synthetic future. The Synthetic Dream series addresses the issue of power usurped by a minority, and invites the viewer to think about how our decisions and the way we interact with reality can change civilization.
Yang Yongliang
Chinese artist Yang Yongliang demonstrates the destructive impact of industrialization on nature in digital collages. The world will be so inhospitable and gray if humanity continues to recklessly rebuild environment and pollute the planet with waste from their activities.
Or maybe everything is just logical? After all, creative people very developed imagination and creative thinking. So different visions come to them along with the winged Pegasus. And how to interpret them is a matter for scientists or simply ordinary people. Be that as it may, history knows at least three artists who became famous for their predictions. Moreover, these predictions actually came true!
Albert Robida
He was born in the south of France in 1848. He did quite well even as a child. As a teenager he began to portray different illustrations and cartoons for periodicals. Already during these years, he developed a passion for two more things - travel and literature. After his book entitled “The Twentieth Century” was published, all sorts of rumors began. The fact is that, according to critics, the writer went too far. In his work, Albert described what awaits people in the 20th century down to the smallest detail. In addition, he provided the book with his own illustrations. For example, the author described the plague in the form of AIDS and the Chernobyl accident. In addition, the creation and distribution nuclear weapons, development of chemical science, creation of artificial food. In his drawings he often depicted such fabulous designs at that time as airships, the subway, a telephone scope, a phonograph, chemical artillery guns, underwater battleships and torpedoes. There are still unfulfilled predictions. But if all of the above came true, then it is quite possible that “due to the feverish haste of life in the 20th century, people will quickly age: at 45 they will look like 70-year-olds. Rejuvenation will take place under special hoods...”
After the First died down World War, Robida begins to suffer from depression. The main reason is his literary subjects began to come true. He eventually burned all his diaries and died in 1926 at the age of 78. Only one note remained intact: “Intelligence and knowledge contribute to the development of cynicism, ingenious and technical inventions are used to harm humanity.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
This name is still on everyone’s lips to this day - be it photographers, mathematicians, poets or people of other professions. Of course, first of all everyone knows him painting. And they got used to seeing his personality only in the role of a great master visual arts. But at the same time, sculptor, scientist, engineer-inventor, architect, mechanic, anatomist, botanist were also his professions. What can I say - he really was a genius. His abilities for all these sciences showed up very early. And his father contributed in every possible way to the growth of his son’s education. It got to the point that the child confused the teachers with his questions in mathematics. Further more - he also managed to study music and played the lyre beautifully. Quotes that became prophetic certainly made many people laugh at the time. But now the smile is somehow completely out of place:
- People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other.
- The trees of the great forests of Taurus and Sinai, Apennine and Atlanta will be seen running through the air from east to west, from north to south; and they will carry great multitudes through the air. Oh, so many vows! Oh, so many dead! Oh, how many separations of friends and relatives! And how many will there be who will no longer see their land or their homeland and who will die without burial, with bones scattered throughout different countries Sveta.
- Those who die will be, thousands of years later, those who support at their own expense many living.
To the questions “Why and where do these fantasies come from?” the master either answered evasively and vaguely, or remained silent altogether. Thus, Leonardo predicted the appearance of many things in the future. But people began to study his records very late and learned about it only in the 19th century.
Back in the 30s, the Argentine prophet painted our present and future, following the dictates higher intelligence.
"The greatest noise of all noises will deafen everything around. Bomb F."
At all times, not only devout priests, but also people of art, to whom an unknown higher power whispered the plots of novels and paintings, became prophets. For the Argentine artist and sculptor Benjamin Solari Parravicini, this was not just inspiration, but a prophetic gift.
Without knowing it, back in the 30s he drew many things that he could not even suspect, for example, a television or Belka and Strelka flying into space.
Sometimes something came over him, he feverishly grabbed a pencil, which seemed to move his hand along the paper, as if someone was dictating something to him, Benjamin’s father Florenzio said during his lifetime.
In one of these attacks of inspiration, he drew angels crying over a huge whirlpool and signed it - Japan.
In notes in the margins, he said that the big "F" would explode and make a lot of noise throughout the earth. It is possible that by “F” he meant the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1.
After the devastating tsunami hit, four explosions occurred in power units. This event created incredible information noise throughout the planet. The predictions of the sculptor inspired by the Universe largely coincide with the prophecies of the blind Vanga. He also says that humanity is facing a nuclear disaster that will destroy fatal diseases and weakness around the world.
According to his drawings, after the disaster the world will be ruled by Russians and “yellowfaces”. Back in 1936, the master’s sketches and signatures to them became much more strange and unusual, but this was not immediately noticed.
At the beginning of the century, this was considered a bizarre manner of the artist. Only many years after mysterious stories The dreams depicted in the drawings began to come true with amazing accuracy, and people started talking about Parravicini in Argentina as a prophet.
- “Home television! On a small screen, right from home, you can watch ongoing external events” (1938). The first black and white television receivers came into use only in the 50s. Parravicini even managed to make a sketch of the future TV. In the same 1938, he made the following entry: “The world will become impersonal under the power of the home screen. Every family will be affected by the negative influence of the new device, which will later be heavily commercialized in pursuit of the masses. Hypnotized beautiful pictures beautiful paradise, humanity will simply become dull. The day will come when, like sheep in a sheepfold, they will be easily manipulated."
- “The struggle for power between the Yankees and the Russians. The struggle for territory and the conquest of outer space. Oddly enough, the power cup will still go to America (1941).
The phrase “conquest of outer space” appeared on everyone’s lips only 16 years after the prediction of Benjamin, who was able to foresee the American triumph in creating a series of 3-seater spaceships Apollo, which made it possible to make the first successful landing of astronauts on the Moon.
“Man will fly to the stars, overcome sound, know the luminaries and understand that the Earth is only the lowest and most undeveloped of all existing planets” (1937).
The first person to break the sound barrier will be Charles Elwood, 10 years after Benjamin's prophecy.
- “In the 60-70s people will be flying with all their might!” (1938).
Russian pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin will make the first flight in the history of astronautics aboard the Vostok-1 spacecraft in 1961.
After that, in the 60-70s. More and more new achievements in astronautics shocked humanity.
Parravicini would later write:
"People will get to the Moon. They will be able to reach it, however, they will not be able to inhabit it. They will see it, but will not be able to look into its depths. They will listen, but will not hear. They will return without returning. Be careful!" (1940, 29 years before the first man landed on the Moon).
"A dog will be the first to fly into space" (1938).
Benjamin foresaw the flight of the dog Laika, the first living creature, in 19 years. space. The sensational flight of the first animal launched into Earth orbit took place in 1957.
“Flying saucers in the form of bright circular flashes of light will visit the Earth, bringing with them strange creatures from other planets. These will be the ones who will flood the earth. Those who in the Old Testament called themselves angels and everyone will see and listen to them again” (1938).
It is curious that the term “flying saucer” itself first became publicized only in 1947 after pilot Arnold Kennett described a UFO he saw.
“The atom will come and rule the world” (1939)
Taking into account the fact that the first attempts to create atomic bomb fall in 1945, and the first nuclear reactor was launched only in 1951, the prophecy seems impossible.
“In Spain, a dictator will come to power who will destroy the country. After him, Bourbon will ascend to the throne, and then the weakened tyrant will flee to Argentina, if only his health allows him” (1938).
The prophecy was written in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, in the year of the birth of the future King Juan Carlos of Bourbon. Parravicina already then foresaw Franco's victory, his rise to power after civil war in 1939 and the subsequent transfer of the crown to Juan Carlos after the death of the tyrant.
Franco died of Parkinson's disease in 1975, before realizing his intention to move to Argentina.
“Russia will subjugate China and spread its dogmas there” (1939).
10 years after the civil war, Mao Zedong came to power in China, proclaiming communism as the national ideology of the state.
"The papacy will take new forms. What yesterday still seemed evil will cease to be so. The Mass will become Protestant without being so. Catholics will turn into Protestants without being them. The Pope will move away from the Vatican because of his travels and will reach America; humanity will fall" (1938).
Benjamin foresaw a revision of the reforms catholic church at the Second Vatican Council in 1962, as well as the appointment of a new Pope, John Paul II, in 1978, known for his constant trips around the world, especially to Latin America.
“Hitler - Mussolini. One end awaits them; one end" (1939).
7 years before the overthrow of the Nazis, Benjamin painted bound and defeated Nazi leaders.
“The heart of the world will fall in the year 40. It will fall and belong to the Germans until 1944” (1938).
In 1938, even before the outbreak of World War II, Parravicini already knew about the fall of France in the face of Nazi Germany. In the prophet’s drawing, the Eiffel Tower is clearly visible, against which the French flag looms.
“A man with a beard, who will seem like a saint to everyone, will set the Antilles on fire” (1937)
The revolution in Cuba occurred 22 years after the prophecy. When Benjamin predicted the event, the future revolutionary Fidel Castro was only 11 years old.
“The bearded men will win in Cuba” (1938).
“Absolute darkness. After the “Caribbean Chaos”, a single “eye” will see “light from the South” from a single “palm tree”. The planet will undergo dramatic changes, and only the South will forever remain the South.” (1938)
In the drawing, Benjamin clearly depicted lightning, which many experts interpret as the HAARP high-frequency active auroral research program, colliding with the ionospheric layer and provoking powerful tremors.
The palm tree most likely refers to the island of Haiti, where the latest earthquake killed at least 200 thousand people and caused the earth's axis to shift several centimeters.
"Freedom North America will go out, her torch will no longer shine as before, she will be attacked twice.” (1939)
Benjamin even painted the famous Twin Towers that were attacked on September 11, 2001. The most amazing thing is that at the time the drawing was created, the towers had not even been built yet.
“The alien ship will prove to the population on Earth the existence of another form of life. At one point, the South Pole will turn into the North Pole. But only for a while! "(1960)
"The atom will take over the world. The planet will go blind. Man will provoke random storms and natural disasters, new forms of disease, sexual promiscuity, mass clouding of reason, general dullness. The world will plunge into darkness." (1934)
“The beginning of the end will come! Man himself will trample on his essence so that a male individual will no longer be needed to reproduce offspring. Human organisms will be born without any offspring. And all this against the background of atomic explosions that will destroy humanity. Radiation will kill people; Monsters, monsters of animal and plant origin, will be born from the wombs of mothers. Because of strontium, people will be born with bones like glass; it will also eat their brains and blood cells; cancer will become completely normal. As a result nuclear war Russians and yellow-skins will be in a privileged position." (1936)
The work of the project, within which French artists late XIX centuries have suggested what the world will be like in the year 2000. TJ decided to find out where their predictions came true and where the dreamers were wrong.
A series of futuristic illustrations was called En L’An 2000 (“Year 2000”) and was prepared for the Paris international exhibition 1900 Over the next 10 years, it found many uses, even as a decoration for cigar boxes, but was then forgotten.
They remembered about En L’An 2000 only in 1986, when the writer Isaac Asimov came across these drawings, who wrote the book “Days of the Future: Vision of the Year 2000” people XIX century" (Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000). The full selection of drawings can now be found on the Wikimedia Commons website.
All works of artists in our time can be attributed to the genre of retro-futurism (an archaic idea of the future). Some of their fantasies now seem stupid, but some, on the contrary, turned out to be surprisingly accurate.
Flying firefighters
In mid-November, news spread around the world that Dubai firefighters had adopted jetpacks. These are, of course, not wings, but the forecast turned out to be very accurate.
Video calls and sending photos
The artists failed to predict the advent of the smartphone, but they conveyed the essence of what we today call video calls surprisingly accurately.
Cleaning robots
For most of us, they have not yet become an everyday occurrence, but if desired, such a device can be ordered in an online store within a few minutes.
Delivery by air
The artists predicted delivery by air, but did not realize that people would not be needed for it. However, even today such an opportunity remains for the most part a fantasy of companies like Amazon, which is still very far from mass implementation.
Podcasts
This work is called “Listening to the Newspaper.” Her idea now exists in the form of radio, podcasts and audiobooks.
Sky Police
In this drawing, the police catch a smuggler in the sky. Nowadays, news that drones are used for illegal drug delivery is not uncommon, and “police” drones have also been invented to catch them.
Projectors
In this picture, an astronomer is studying the projection of a celestial body on his desk. Modern analogues- projectors, touch screens, computers - no longer surprise anyone.
Electric rollers
Residents of the early 20th century could not even imagine the variety of solutions this idea would result in. We have scooters, Segways and mini-Segways - whatever your heart desires.
Robot hairdresser
We still trust people with our hair, but we have a robot hairdresser has already, and it looks almost the same.
Chemical food
We don't enjoy artificial food like these ladies and gentlemen, it entered our lives unnoticed and now causes strictly negative emotions in many people.
High-speed electric trains, air bombers and mobile homes
Devilishly accurate.
Horse-curiosity
Today people usually don't pay money to see a horse (rather, to ride one), but still, their appearance somewhere in the city center can really cause surprise in children.
Total automation
Artists undoubtedly guessed the trend towards automation of various work processes. So many of the works depict people building houses, doing housework, or sewing clothes using machines.
Back in the 30s, the Argentine prophet painted our present and future, following the dictates of a higher mind. At all times, not only devout priests, but also people of art, to whom an unknown higher power whispered the plots of novels and paintings, became prophets. For the Argentine artist and sculptor Benjamin Solari Parravicini, this was not just inspiration, but a prophetic gift.
Without knowing it, back in the 30s he drew many things that he could not even suspect, for example, a television or Belka and Strelka flying into space.
“Sometimes something came over him, he feverishly grabbed a pencil, which seemed to move his hand along the paper, as if someone was dictating something to him,” Benjamin’s father Florenzio said during his lifetime.
In one of these attacks of inspiration, he drew angels crying over a huge whirlpool and signed it - Japan.
In notes in the margins, he said that the big "F" would explode and make a lot of noise throughout the earth. It is possible that by “F” he meant the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1.
After the devastating tsunami hit, four explosions occurred in power units. This event created incredible information noise throughout the planet. The predictions of the sculptor inspired by the Universe largely coincide with the prophecies of the blind Vanga. He also says that humanity is facing a nuclear disaster, which will spread deadly diseases and weakness throughout the world.
According to his drawings, after the disaster the world will be ruled by Russians and “yellowfaces”. Back in 1936, the master’s sketches and signatures to them became much more strange and unusual, but this was not immediately noticed.
At the beginning of the century, this was considered a bizarre manner of the artist. Only many years after the mysterious stories depicted in the drawings began to come true with amazing accuracy, they started talking about Parravicini in Argentina as a prophet. 
- “Home television! On a small screen, right from home, you can watch ongoing external events” (1938). The first black and white television receivers came into use only in the 50s. Parravicini even managed to make a sketch of the future TV. In the same 1938, he made the following entry: “The world will become impersonal under the power of the home screen. Every family will be affected by the negative influence of the new device, which will later be heavily commercialized in pursuit of the masses. Hypnotized by beautiful pictures of a beautiful paradise, humanity will simply become dull. The day will come when, like sheep in a sheepfold, they will be easily manipulated." 
- “The struggle for power between the Yankees and the Russians. The struggle for territory and the conquest of outer space. Oddly enough, the power cup will still go to America (1941).
The phrase “conquest of outer space” appeared on everyone’s lips only 16 years after the prediction of Benjamin, who was able to foresee the American triumph in the creation of a series of 3-seater Apollo spacecraft, which made it possible to make the first successful landing of astronauts on the Moon. 
“Man will fly to the stars, overcome sound, know the luminaries and understand that the Earth is only the lowest and most undeveloped of all existing planets” (1937).
The first person to break the sound barrier will be Charles Elwood, 10 years after Benjamin's prophecy. 
- “In the 60-70s people will be flying with all their might!” (1938).
Russian pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin will make the first flight in the history of astronautics aboard the Vostok-1 spacecraft in 1961.
After that, in the 60-70s. More and more new achievements in astronautics shocked humanity.
Parravicini would later write:
"People will get to the Moon. They will be able to reach it, however, they will not be able to inhabit it. They will see it, but will not be able to look into its depths. They will listen, but will not hear. They will return without returning. Be careful!" (1940, 29 years before the first man landed on the Moon). 
"A dog will be the first to fly into space" (1938).
Benjamin foresaw for 19 years the flight of the dog Laika, the first living creature, into outer space. The sensational flight of the first animal launched into Earth orbit took place in 1957. 
“Flying saucers in the form of bright circular flashes of light will visit the Earth, bringing with them strange creatures from other planets. These will be the ones who will flood the earth. Those who in the Old Testament called themselves angels and everyone will see and listen to them again” (1938).
It is curious that the term “flying saucer” itself first became publicized only in 1947 after pilot Arnold Kennett described a UFO he saw. 
“The atom will come and rule the world” (1939)
Considering the fact that the first attempts to create an atomic bomb occurred in 1945, and the first atomic reactor was launched only in 1951, the prophecy seems impossible.
“In Spain, a dictator will come to power who will destroy the country. After him, Bourbon will ascend to the throne, and then the weakened tyrant will flee to Argentina, if only his health allows him” (1938).
The prophecy was written in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, in the year of the birth of the future King Juan Carlos of Bourbon. Parravicina already then foresaw Franco's victory, his rise to power after the civil war in 1939 and the subsequent transfer of the crown to Juan Carlos after the tyrant's death.
Franco died of Parkinson's disease in 1975, before realizing his intention to move to Argentina.
“Russia will subjugate China and spread its dogmas there” (1939).
10 years after the civil war, Mao Zedong came to power in China, proclaiming communism as the national ideology of the state. 
"The papacy will take new forms. What yesterday still seemed evil will cease to be so. The Mass will become Protestant without being so. Catholics will turn into Protestants without being them. The Pope will move away from the Vatican because of his travels and will reach America; humanity will fall" (1938).
Benjamin foresaw the revision of the reforms of the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council in 1962, as well as the appointment of a new Pope, John Paul II, in 1978, known for his constant travels around the world, especially to Latin America.
“Hitler - Mussolini. One end awaits them; one end" (1939).
7 years before the overthrow of the Nazis, Benjamin painted bound and defeated Nazi leaders.
“The heart of the world will fall in the year 40. It will fall and belong to the Germans until 1944” (1938).
In 1938, even before the outbreak of World War II, Parravicini already knew about the fall of France in the face of Nazi Germany. In the prophet’s drawing, the Eiffel Tower is clearly visible, against which the French flag looms.
“A man with a beard, who will seem like a saint to everyone, will set the Antilles on fire” (1937)
The revolution in Cuba occurred 22 years after the prophecy. When Benjamin predicted the event, the future revolutionary Fidel Castro was only 11 years old.
Exactly one year later, Parravicini added to his prophecy:
“The bearded men will win in Cuba” (1938).
“Absolute darkness. After the “Caribbean Chaos”, a single “eye” will see “light from the South” from a single “palm tree”. The planet will undergo dramatic changes, and only the South will forever remain the South.” (1938) 
In the drawing, Benjamin clearly depicted lightning, which many experts interpret as the HAARP high-frequency active auroral research program, colliding with the ionospheric layer and provoking powerful tremors.
The palm tree most likely refers to the island of Haiti, where the latest earthquake killed at least 200 thousand people and caused the earth's axis to shift several centimeters.
"The freedom of North America will be extinguished, its torch will no longer shine as before, it will be attacked twice." (1939)
Benjamin even painted the famous Twin Towers that were attacked on September 11, 2001. The most amazing thing is that at the time the drawing was created, the towers had not even been built yet. 
“The alien ship will prove to the population on Earth the existence of another form of life. At one point, the South Pole will turn into the North Pole. But only for a while! "(1960)
"The atom will take over the world. The planet will go blind. Man will provoke random storms and natural disasters, new forms of disease, sexual promiscuity, mass clouding of reason, general dullness. The world will plunge into darkness." (1934)
"The beginning of the end will come! Man himself will trample on his essence in order to reproduce offspring; a male individual will no longer be needed. Human organisms will be born without any offspring. And all this against the backdrop of atomic explosions that will destroy humanity. People will be killed by radiation; from the womb of their mothers Monsters will be born, monsters of animal and plant origin. Because of strontium, people will be born with bones like glass; it will also eat their brains and blood cells; as a result of a nuclear war, Russians and yellow-skinned people will be in a privileged position. ". (1936)
