Motion in Art: Motion in Art

Everything in the universe can be considered to be moving. This simple concept has evoked many artists to fix the process of movement in their artworks. Fascinated with storms at sea, strong winds, fast animals, artists at all times tried to depict it with whichever media they had at hand. The site MOTION IN ART is devoted to studying and depicting motion in two dimensional artworks.

The site is curated by the ukrainian artist Anton, who explores motion in his works. Anton's gallery is available on SaatchiArt webpage

Motion in art - Definition

Motion, a principle of art, is a tool artists use to organize the artistic elements in a work, it is employed in both static and time-based mediums

Motion, a principle of art, is a tool artists use to organize the artistic elements in a work; it is employed in both static and time-based mediums.

Source: Boundless. “Time and Motion.” Boundless Art History Boundless, 01 Mar. 2017. Retrieved 26 Mar. 2017 from https://www.boundless.com/art-history/textbooks/boundless-art-history-textbook/thinking-and-talking-about-art-1/visual-elements-39/time-and-motion-252-10728/

Techniques such as scale and proportion are used to create the feeling of motion or the passing of time in static a visual piece.
The placement of a repeated element in different area within an artwork is another way to imply motion and the passing of time.
Visual experiments in time and motion were first produced in the mid-19th century, and the photographer Eadweard Muybridge is well-known for his sequential shots.
The time-based mediums of film, video, kinetic sculpture, and performance art employ time and motion by their very definitions.

Movement

Art exists in time as well as space. Time implies change and movement; movement implies the passage of time. Movement and time, whether actual or an illusion, are crucial elements in art although we may not be aware of it.
An art work may incorporate actual motion; that is, the artwork itself moves in some way. Or it may incorporate the illusion of, or implied movement.

Actual movement or motion
Artwork that incorporates actual movement is called kinetic. An artwork can move on its own in several ways: through natural properties or effects such as air currents, or it may be mechanically or technologically driven, or it may involve either the artist or the viewer moving it.

Moving through naural properties.
Art that moves through the effect of natural properties, either its own inherent properties or their effect, is unpredictable. Spatial relationships within the work change continuously, with endless possibilities. One of the delights of experiencing such artwork is the element of change and surprise. It's as if every time we look at it we are seeing a new artwork.

Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder, Sumac II, 1952 Sheet metal, wire, and paint 29 1/4" x 48" x 35"

Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Alexander Calder is known for his development of moving sculptures, which he called mobiles. (He called his stationary sculptures stabiles). Each section in this sculpture, or mobile, can twist and turn on its own through air currents, causing an endless amount of variations in its form.

The Alhambra

Court of the Lions, The Alhambra, Grenada, Spain

Photo: Lucy Lamp

The Alhambra is a massive complex in southern Spain built by Moors during the 14th century. Its funtion was twofold: as a fortress for protection and defense, and as a palace for relaxation and luxurious refreshment. Southern Spain is dry and hot, and one of the delightful and remarkable aspects of the Alhambra is that water flows throughout the whole complex in surprising and ingenious ways. All of this was engineered using forces of nature and the qualities of how water moves. Around every corner, in gardens and courts and staircases the water flows. It bestows a profound sense of renewal and rest.

Mechanical or technologically driven movement in art.
This type of movement may be more predictable and limited than movement through natural properties, or it can seem endless, depending on the complexity of the system that moves the artwork. The motor or movement system may be purposely revealed or it may be hidden, depending on the effect the artist desires. The movement can be very mechanical, robotic, or seamless and flowing.

Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn Painting Machine 1988

metal, electric motor, wood and metal rods 43 x 17 in. / 109.2 x 43.2 cm.

image source: artnet.com

Rebecca Horn has experimented with many concepts and types of movement in her sculptures throughout her career, including "body extensions', kinetic sculptures, installations, and working with light and reflections. This is one of her kinetic sculptures, a painting machine, which creates an endless variety of paintings as it moves and drops paint onto moving paper surfaces. This calls attention to the idea of originality in art and the historical traditions of painting.

Viewer driven movement in art.
Contemporary artists have been exploring the concept of how a viewer experiences an artwork, and either forcing the viewer to become aware of their process of experiencing the artwork, or inviting them to become part of the artwork itself.

Marcia Lyons

Marcia Lyons RED Force Fields
Installation at David Richard Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, June 01 - 26, 2011

"David Richard Contemporary is pleased to present RED (Force Fields), an immersive experience in the color RED. The exhibition will feature a two part installation by Marcia Lyons–a projected live feed of the earth's seismic data bubbling up as large red dots, activated by viewers in one space and translated into a massive digital painting on the walls of an adjacent gallery space. The artwork is data and viewer driven, the viewer moves and the piece moves, as both become one with the pulse of the earth. RED (Force Fields) is based upon the observation that the most important aspect of energy is not the source, but the space around it and the influence of one on the other through some 'force' like gravity or electro-magnetism – RED signals a color's peculiarities. What is color doing to the viewer? With both wave and particle like characteristics this group of artist's works 'communicate' across a 'field', each has a unique 'frequency' and language to 'speak' to the world as a resonating 'sound'... in light. " Gallery statement http://www.davidrichardcontemporary.com/Shows.cfm

Olafur Eliasson:The illusion of stopped movement and time--within an artwork that incorporates actual movement and time

Olafur Eliasson, Your Strange Certainty Still Kept, 1996

Water, light (stroboskop), plexiglas, plastic, recirculating pump and wood

In a darkened room, there is a pool of water on the floor and water dripping from the ceiling into the pool. This is what you know when you step into the room. But it is lit only with strobe light, so all you have are flashes of information as to what you are seeing. The strobe light freezes the movement of the water drops, in an endless variation. It is like seeing time stopped. The effect is mesmerizing and magical. Along with the slight coolness of the room and the scent of cool fresh water, it becomes a transcendent moment.

Implied Movement or Motion
Movement can be suggested visually in a variety of ways: through the use of diagonal, gestural, and directional lines; repetition; position and size of objects; the position or implied eyeline of a figure, a symbolic representation of movement.

Kandinsky: Movement Through Line and Placement

Wassily Kandinsky Yellow -- Red -- Blue 1925
o/c Musee Nationale d'Art Moderne (Centre Pompidou), Paris

Kandinsky used abstraction to represent the intangible. He used formal elements to portray what can't be seen with the eyes and has no physical form. In this painting, there is a strong and vibrant sense of movement. If you study it you will find diagonal, gestural, and directional lines; repetition; and placement of objects to give it an illusion of motion.

Audubon: Position of the Figure (Subject Matter) to Imply Movement

John James Audobon Virginian Partridge (Northern Bobwhite) under attack by a young red-shouldered hawk.1829

Plate 76 from Birds of America by John James Audubon (Havell Edition). Restored 2008 by RestoredPrints.com.

Source www.RestoredPrints.com

Creating an illusion of movement was critical for Audubon's work. He studied his subject matter--birds--extensively in the wild to learn not only about their appearance but their manner of movement as well. His work is dinstinctive for nature illustrators of his time in that he portrayed his subjects in action rather than stiffly posed.

Boccioni: The Human Figure in Motion as Symbolic Metaphor

Umberto Boccioni Unique Forms of Continuity in Space 1913 (cast 1931)

bronze 43 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 15 3/4" (111.2 x 88.5 x 40 cm)

Museum of Modern Art New York Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest

Boccioni was an Italian Futurist. The Futurist movement of the early 20th century embraced the idea of the hope of a technological future and glorified themes such as speed, industry, the car, airplanes, and modern cities.

This figure symboloizesa sense of forward progress, speed, and determination in moving toward something. There are many elements in this sculpture that imply movement: the use of diagonals, the exagerrated length of the figure's stride, a sense of strong wind blowing what can be read as the figure's clothing, and the forward focus of the head.

Although the eyes of the figure cannot be discerned, there is an implied eye line that suggests the figure looking ahead, implying movement of the figure toward whatever is "seen" in the distance. An ironic emphasis is added by the use of what appear to be heavy immovable blocks from which the figure is springing.

Muybridge: Repetition as a Record of Movement

Eadweard Muybridge The Horse in Motion 1878

"Sallie Gardner," owned by Leland Stanford; running at a 1:40 gait over the Palo Alto track, June 19, 1878

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a45870

Muybridge was a pioneer not only of early photography but the science and study of movment as well. He fabricated a special camera that would capture every sequence of his subjects' movements, frame by frame. He photographed animals and people in motion. Through his work a new understanding of movement was gained. In this series of frames, it can be clearly seen that all four of the horse's hooves are off the ground at certain points during the horse's sequence of motion.

By Sophia.org

Motion in Art

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Motion in Art

Motion in art - Definition

Movement

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