Dynamism of a Cyclist

Dynamism of a Cyclist
Italian: Dinamismo di un Ciclista
Umberto Boccioni, Dynamism of a Cyclist, 1913.
Artist Umberto Boccioni
Year 1913
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 70 cm × 95 cm (28 in × 37 in)
Location Peggy Guggenheim Collection (long term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection), Venice.

Dynamism of a Cyclist (Dinamismo di un Ciclista) is a 1913 painting by Italian Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) that demonstrates the Futurist preoccupation with speed, modern methods of transport, and the depiction of the dynamic sensation of movement.

Background

Futurism was an early twentieth-century movement in Italy that sought to free the country from what the Futurists saw as the dead weight of its classical past. The Futurists were preoccupied with the technology and dynamism of modern life.[1] The movement found its expression primarily in literature and art.

Subject and composition

Although the bicycle had been invented in the early nineteenth century, it did not come into widespread use until the 1890s. Even in 1913, the bicycle, and the high speeds obtainable on it, still represented for the Futurists one of the modern forms of transport that they idealised.[2]

Boccioni's preparatory drawings for the painting (two shown below) depict a head-down racing cyclist, behind in the air, his movement indicated by the characteristic Futurist "force lines" and echoing curves.[2] Force lines, which the Futurists claimed to have invented,[3] show how an object would resolve itself if it followed the tendencies of its own forces[4]:284 and reflected the interest of the Futurists in the philosophy of Henri Bergson, who believed that material objects exist in a state of continual flux. The painting is therefore an attempt to represent the dynamic sensation of a cyclist moving through time and space rather than a snap-shot of a particular moment in time.[4]:280[5]

In the final work, the lines of the preparatory drawings are translated into curves and cones, outlined using Boccioni's characteristic divisionist technique.[2] The discordant colour choices reflect the failure of the Futurists to develop a coherent colour theory to match their theories in other areas.[1]

  1. ^ On The Move, 13 January – 18 April 2010. Estorick Collection. Retrieved 11 February 2015.

Related works

Among other works by Boccioni on the theme of dynamism were Dynamism of a Footballer,[6] Dynamism of a Man's Head, Synthesis of Human Dynamism and Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, all 1913.

The Russian Futurists explored many of the same themes as the Italians. Natalia Goncharova's Cyclist (1913) includes some of the same techniques for portraying movement used by Boccioni and the other Futurists,[7] although the work is far more directly representational than Dynamism of a Cyclist and much less ambitious.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Little, Stephen. (2004) Isms: Understanding Art. London: Herbert Press, pp. 108–109. ISBN 9780713670110
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Umberto Boccioni. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Joe Bray; Alison Gibbons; Brian McHale; (2012). The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-136-30174-2.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Heard Hamilton, George. (1993) Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880–1940. 6th edition. New Haven: Yale University Press ISBN 0300056494
  5. ↑ "Umberto Boccioni and 100 years of Futurism". Andrew Graham-Dixon, 18 January 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Dynamism of a Football Player by Umberto Boccioni. Andrew Graham-Dixon, 30 June 2002. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "Women of the futurists". Sarah Kent, The Telegraph, 16 June 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Futurists’ Futile Chase After Motion". Souren Melikian, The New York Times, 19 June 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Umberto Boccioni.