When Art Imitates Life: Depicting Movement

Just as I was about to leave the gallery today I noticed a woman walking her two Scottish terriers on the sidewalk across the street. They weren't quite full grown yet but were full of energy as they scurried along the sidewalk.

I couldn't help but think of Giacomo Balla, the Futurist painter who known for his depictions of light, movement and speed. It's interesting to consider how visual artists slowly adopted new and innovative ways to depict movement on a two-dimensional surface. "That seems easy!" one might think, but is it really? Check out the painting I immediately thought of when I saw the two Scotties scampering by:



Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash | 1912

The painting is a bit dizzying, I must admit, but it certainly provides a summation of time over the course many individual "moments." I won't get into the political implications of Futurism, but I find it fascinating as an art historical convention.

Here's an interesting quote that coincides with Balla's painting:

"On account of the persistency of an image upon the retina, moving objects constantly multiply themselves; their form changes like rapid vibrations, in their mad career. Thus a running horse has not four legs, but twenty, and their movements are triangular." - Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting

This, of course, leads me to think of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who is known for his work on animal locomotion. Eadweard used multiple cameras to capture separate moments in time. In fact, his work photographing a galloping horse answered the much debated question of the period: whether all four of a horse's hooves are off the ground at the same time during a gallop. In fact, Leland Stanford, who was the California governor at the time, hired Muybridge to to settle the question.


The Horse In Motion | 1978

Muybridge's photographs showed that Stanford's racehorse was airbornein the midst of a gallop, solving the question once and for all. These photographs were taken in the late 19th century and directly relate to the Futurists' interests in the early 20th century.

To come full circle, the point of this post was to consider the idea of art imitating life. I'm constantly making associations between the past and present - it seems like anything and everything relates to art in some way, shape, or form. Art is continuous, fluid, and ongoing... and that's very, very exciting.

- Michelle