Modernism in Art
...ped to bolder more expressive portrayals of machine age ideas. Energy was shown even more as the idea became more widely recognised and followed. Repetition and bold colour became dominant in Delaunay’s art. Such as in ‘Homage to Bleriot’ 1914, a painting dedicated to the first flight over the English Channel, accomplished by Louis Bleriot in 1909 and perhaps one of the last Orphic works as this movement was ended with the beginning of World War One in 1914. In this work, colour and disk-like shapes have taken over to create almost pure abstraction. Only the slightest hints of reality are shown, such as symbols of the aeroplane, propeller and the Eiffel Tower in the background. The Eiffel Tower, 1889, a very favourable subject for Delaunay, is the most recognisable symbol of France. It represents modernity and the industrial revolution, key aspects and interests of Orphism and the machine age. The repetition of circular shapes, which are almost like ripples, make reference to radiowaves and atoms and are used to express visual mobility, a shifting of air and light within the painting, which singularly expresses aspects unique to the machine age. As opposed to Orphism, Futurism focuses mainly on the portrayal of man and machine, bringing paintings to life through unique techniques of showing movement in a new machine-like manner. Futurists didn’t care anything for traditional methods and were only interested in modern inventions and the new life it was creating. The Futurists found that colour was less important to depict their ideas and they express movement and energy with the way they depicted their subject matter, for example, through expressive brushstrokes and line. An influence not seen in Orphism is that of time lapse photography. The technique of showing consecutive movements in a still photograph, used by Eadweard Muybridge, influenced artwork in the Futurist movement as it creates energy and movement within the painting. An example of this is in ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ 1912 by Giacomo Balla. This work shows influence of time lapse photography in the rapid movement of the dog’s legs, tail and head as well as its leash and the skirts of the woman walking it. “ I believe that the power and speed of machines such as cars are the key characteristics of the modern age, I aim to express this in my work.” – Balla. The invention of the camera and techniques following this were believed to represent modern invention and the new path society was taking into the future. Another Futurists w...